Thursday, December 8, 2022

"Three Strikes, You're Out!"

"Three Strikes, You're Out!"
More on the government's Middle Class massacre...
by Bill Bonner

Baltimore, Maryland - "It looks like the post-Thanksgiving shopping binge was not nearly as successful as hoped. Here’s The Wall Street Journal: "Sales at bricks-and-mortar stores over Thanksgiving weekend fell short of prepandemic levels and were behind last year’s totals, another sign that Black Friday is losing its status as the crucial kickoff to the holiday-shopping season. “It used to be people would wait in line from midnight for the stores to open at 4 or 5 a.m….”

What happened? Hot off the press is a report from the UN’s International Labor Organization. It tells us that for the first time this century, workers of the world are getting poorer: "This year’s ILO Global Wage Report… shows that, for the first time this century, global real wage growth has become negative while real productivity has continued to grow. Indeed, 2022 shows the largest gap recorded since 1999 between real labour productivity growth and real wage growth in high income countries. While the erosion of real wages affects all wage earners, it is having a greater impact on low-income households which spend a higher proportion of their disposable incomes on essential goods and services, the prices of which are increasing faster than those for non-essential items in most countries."

Blood on Main Street: One of the themes we’ve been following is the “middle class massacre.” Yes, everyone knows that the middle class gets scalped in an inflationary period. It spends most of its money on consumer items; as prices go up, it loses purchasing power.

Inflation also destroys the value of its time. The middle class sells its time to earn a living. Typically, as inflation rates go up, real wages go down. Countries with high inflation rates – Argentina, Venezuela, Turkey – are usually poor, with a middle class that is getting poorer. Countries with low inflation rates, on the other hand – such as Switzerland – have prosperous middle classes.

Back in the summer, we reported the US was suffering the biggest wage losses in 20 years – with working class incomes down 2.8% (annually) between March and May of this year. To get that number, you had to subtract the CPI (inflation) from the nominal wage increases.

Simple math was apparently too much for most reporters. As of last week, they were declaring that wage-earners were seeing ‘strong gains’ of 5.1%. This was nonsense. But you had to subtract today’s 7.7% inflation rate to see what was really going on. Then, it was clear that the labor market was weak, not strong. The working stiffs were actually still losing ground, at the rate of about 260 basis points (2.6%) per year. In October, for the 20th month in a row, the middle class got poorer.

Tapped Out: And now, while middle class shoppers run out of money, the whole economy runs out of fuel. CNBC: "Americans are spending 10% more than they did a year ago due to inflation and rising interest rates, [JP Morgan CEO, Jamie] Dimon said, and they’re tapping into their savings to do so. The personal savings rate—which measures consumers’ savings as a percentage of their disposable income—fell to just 2.3% in October, well below the over 9% figure seen before the pandemic. “Inflation is eroding everything,” Dimon told CNBC. “[T]hat trillion and a half dollars will run out sometime mid-year next year."

Whom does recession affect most severely? The middle class of course. They lose jobs and incomes…while the value of their main capital assets – their homes – falls. Stagflation, too, is deadly to the middle class. They lose income – while their costs of living keep going up.

But if inflation/recession/stagflation are harmful to lumpen consumers, few dare to wonder why they are so common? After all, the middle class is where “the people” are. And if the feds wanted to do what was best for the majority of the nation, they would stop inflation immediately. But inflation continues.

There is no mystery to controlling inflation. You just have to stop spending money you don’t have…stop lending out money at interest rates below inflation…and stop ‘printing’ up extra money to cover the holes in your budget. Instead, most governments continue to spend and print. Inflation is on the rise almost everywhere. And for the first time in modern history, much of the entire world’s middle class – the people who make the world work – is facing a grim period of higher inflation and lower real standards of living. What’s really behind it? Stay tuned..."

Joel’s Note: “One. Two. Three strikes you’re out!” Bonner Private Research’s macro analyst, Dan Denning, has been on the case as usual. The UN report to which Bill referred above shows a 3.2% wage decline in North America, “the largest of any region,” says Dan. A couple of relevant charts, straight from the report. First, real (inflation adjusted) global wages:

And second, the same for North America:
Notice, too, that the declines in real wages this year have handily outpaced the same measure during the 2008 global financial crisis. What’s driving this trend, you ask? Debt... deficits... and the dollar...“The bottom line,” says Dan, “is that the advanced economies increased gross debt-to-gdp levels because they increased spending and income support to compensate for the lockdowns.” “This had three effects,” he continues, “An increase in gross debt-to-gdp levels, higher inflation, and negative real wage growth.” Hence the three strikes for baseball lovin’, middle class Americans...

"Strange Prices At Kroger! This Is Crazy! Daily Vlog!"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures with Danno, 12/8/22:
"Strange Prices At Kroger! This Is Crazy! Daily Vlog!"
"In today's vlog we are at Kroger, and are noticing very strange prices! We are here to check out skyrocketing prices, and the empty shelves situation! It's getting rough out here as stores seem to be struggling with getting products!"
Comments here:

"Could These Mysterious Clots Be the Cause of Death?"

Full screen recommended.
Peak Prosperity, 12/6/22:
"Could These Mysterious Clots Be the Cause of Death?"
Comments here:
ͦ
"The Future is Bleak"
by Chris Black

"I just got done re-watching "Died Suddenly," and it left me feeling hopeless. You see, I thought eventually the evidence would be too much to ignore or hide, but we’ve reached a point where it should be, and nothing is happening.

Insurance companies predicted that a 10% rise in all-cause mortality would be a catastrophic event in the US. We are at 40%. Birthrates are down 70% in Australia, other countries are getting there as well. Still births and miscarriages in some places are up 71 sigma, which is 71 times the standard deviation from the normal, in other words, a statistical impossibility.

These f**king shots are killing people, will kill even more people, and worst of all, it’s sterilizing us. Watching people react to all this plandemic bullshit transformed me into a misanthrope. What I find funny is that excess deaths are up 10-40% and it is not reported on.

Every day when I turned the news on from 2020-2022 it was a reported daily the numbers of covid cases/deaths, then it was unvaccinated cases/deaths. Why all of a sudden did that stop? More people are dying now than during the pandemic and it’s not even acknowledged. Because your news is sponsored by Pfizer. Big Pharma spends the majority of all advertising money and they are flush with taxpayer cash right now."
"Died Suddenly"
by Stew Peters Presents, 11/21/22

"Since the mass vaccinations began, a new phenomenon is being observed in every country of the world: countless perfectly healthy people die suddenly. Large numbers of sports athletes, airplane pilots, bus drivers, celebrities, media personalities... suddenly collapse, many on camera! A quick internet search reveals millions of pages dedicated to this occurrence.This shocking film shows how countless people worldwide have died suddenly after receiving the injections. What is being found in their veins is pure horror...

Why do we never believe them? For centuries, the global elite have broadcast their intentions to depopulate the world - even to the point of carving them into stone. And yet… we never seem to believe them. Now we have a damning presentation on the truth about the greatest ongoing mass genocide in human history.

This film is not for the faint of heart, as it is an uncensored exposure of the terror inflicted on humanity by the experimental injections. This is undeniable evidence that indeed the jabs are part of a mass depopulation agenda. To further confirm the danger of the injections, I have added several other videos to this page, from world leading scientists. Some break out in desperate sobbing, while warning humanity. This page is a powerful tool to shock millions of people wide awake. Please share it far and wide."
View "Died Suddenly" here:
Related, much information and many videos:
ͦ
"The data suggests that we may currently be witnessing
the greatest organized mass murder in the history of our world."

Wednesday, December 7, 2022

"Putin Just Confirmed the Worst, Troops Move to Border, Ukraine Evacuating"

Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 12/7/22:
"Putin Just Confirmed the Worst, 
Troops Move to Border, Ukraine Evacuating"
"New threats from the Kremlin on the heels of Russias nuclear bombers being targetted; Poland gets patriots; Belarus moves troops to border; Kyiv mayor says apocalypse is near for his city; attempted German coup; things are getting crazy to say the least."
Comments here:

"What's Coming Will Be Worse Than The Great Depression, Prepare For Crash Landing"

Jeremiah Babe, 12/7/22:
 "What's Coming Will Be Worse Than The Great Depression, 
Prepare For Crash Landing"
Comments here:

"15 Biggest Retailers Report Major Layoffs As Tough Times Are Coming"

Full screen recommended.
"15 Biggest Retailers Report Major Layoffs 
As Tough Times Are Coming"
by Epic Economist

"A massive wave of layoffs has begun all across America. A new report published by Challenger, Gray & Christmas revealed that the pace of job cuts by U.S. employers accelerated in November, with the number of layoffs climbing 127% from October. Companies announced 76,835 job cuts in November, the analysis found. That is 417% higher than the same time one year ago.

The holiday season is usually marked by a hiring boom as businesses seek additional help to meet the rise in foot traffic and consumer demand. But conditions are alarmingly different this year. As Americans deal with higher costs of everyday necessities and are left with an increasingly smaller amount of money for other purchases, even some of the biggest retailers in America are seeing sales fall precipitously, and their bottom lines are getting deeply hurt.

For instance, Amazon, which previously announced that it would eliminate 10,000 jobs is now actually preparing to lay off twice as many workers, according to an inside source. Popular brands like Pepsi and even BestBuy, and FedEx are coping with rising operational costs and not enough revenue. Their only choice to continue to make their business profitable is to reduce their headcounts.

A year ago, most of these retailers had one overwhelming employment problem: they couldn’t find enough people to work in their stores. Employees were leaving the sector in droves and not enough people were applying to fill the open positions. In December 2021, retail job openings were up by nearly 40%, but the pace of people quitting retail employment rose at about the same rate, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Back then, layoffs and discharges were down 59%. At that time, in assessing the outlook for retail in 2022, Deloitte’s Rod Sides wrote, “Currently, the biggest pain point for retailers is at the store level, and 74% of major retail executives surveyed expect shortages in customer-facing positioning.

It's safe to say that things have changed very quickly. Now there are signs that retail layoffs will continue well into 2023, and estimates released by the National Retail Federation suggest that one-third of retail jobs could be lost during the unfolding recession. “Retailers are already running fairly lean,” Sides observed. “How can retailers deliver the customer service promised and do it in a cost-effective manner with even fewer people? When customers are unhappy in the store, they go home and order it online.”

It becomes a vicious circle. Customers get frustrated when they can’t find what they want in the store or get treated poorly from a customer service perspective – all things at risk with understaffed stores. “If you don’t have enough labor, retailers are going to drive people away from the store and push them online, not because they don’t want to buy there but because they want a better experience,” he explained.

This means that even as they try to save their business now by reducing their workforces, at the end of the day, these layoffs will only accelerate the demise of the sector, and make even more companies fall victim to the retail apocalypse. As the current economic downturn aggravates, more and more layoff announcements will start to emerge in the coming weeks and months. Today, we listed 15 major retailers that are cutting jobs in preparation for harder times."

Musical Interlude: 2002, "We Meet Again"

Full screen recommended.
2002, "We Meet Again"

"A Look to the Heavens"

“The beautiful Trifid Nebula, also known as Messier 20, is easy to find with a small telescope in the nebula rich constellation Sagittarius. About 5,000 light-years away, the colorful study in cosmic contrasts shares this well-composed, nearly 1 degree wide field with open star cluster Messier 21 (top right).

Trisected by dust lanes the Trifid itself is about 40 light-years across and a mere 300,000 years old. That makes it one of the youngest star forming regions in our sky, with newborn and embryonic stars embedded in its natal dust and gas clouds. Estimates of the distance to open star cluster M21 are similar to M20's, but though they share this gorgeous telescopic skyscape there is no apparent connection between the two. In fact, M21's stars are much older, about 8 million years old.”

The Poet: James Broughton, "Having Come This Far"

"Having Come This Far"

"I've been through what my through was to be,
I did what I could and couldn't.
I was never sure how I would get there.
I nourished an ardor for thresholds,
for stepping stones and for ladders,
I discovered detour and ditch.
I swam in the high tides of greed,
I built sandcastles to house my dreams.
I survived the sunburns of love.

No longer do I hunt for targets.
I've climbed all the summits I need to,
and I've eaten my share of lotus.
Now I give praise and thanks
for what could not be avoided,
and for every foolhardy choice.
I cherish my wounds and their cures,
and the sweet enervations of bliss.
My book is an open life.

I wave goodbye to the absolutes,
and send my regards to infinity.
I'd rather be blithe than correct.
Until something transcendent turns up,
I splash in my poetry puddle,
and try to keep God amused."

- James Broughton

"Whatever Your Fate Is..."

“Whatever your fate is, whatever the hell happens, you say, “This is what I need.” It may look like a wreck, but go at it as though it were an opportunity, a challenge. If you bring love to that moment- not discouragement- you will find the strength there. Any disaster you can survive is an improvement in your character, your stature, and your life. What a privilege! This is when the spontaneity of your own nature will have a chance to flow. Then, when looking back at your life, you will see that the moments which seemed to be great failures, followed by wreckage, were the incidents that shaped the life you have now. You’ll see this is really true. Nothing can happen to you that is not positive. Even though it looks and feels at the moment like a negative crisis, it is not. The crisis throws you back, and when you are required to exhibit strength, it comes.”
~ Joseph Campbell

"A Day That Will Live in Infamy"

"A Day That Will Live in Infamy"
by Brian Maher

"A day that will live in infamy…Do we refer to Dec. 23, 1913 - the date Mr. Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act into law? Or Aug. 15, 1971… the date old Nixon banged shut the gold window? Or perhaps even Jan. 20, 2021, the date when the most popular and beloved president in history vacated the White House? No. We refer of course to Dec. 7, 1941 - 81 years ago today - when naval and air forces of Imperial Japan gave Pearl Harbor a good working over.

In our distant youth we recall the anniversaries drew far greater notice. Many Pearl Harbor survivors still drew breath. And many Americans not present could still recall their precise location when word reached them. Yet fewer and fewer of these Americans - Americans of the “greatest generation” - linger on. Thus the evil day may live in infamy… but not in memory. More memories die with each year that passes. The United States has since endured another Pearl Harbor of sorts. The events of Sept. 11, 2001, rank alongside it, and struck… literally and figuratively… closer to home.

Innocence Lost: Yet the Pearl Harbor blow was the first to remind Americans of their vulnerability to the sinister world beyond. What did most Americans - what do most Americans - have to say about it?

Mr. Robert Higgs of the Independent Institute: "Ask a typical American how the United States got into World War II, and he will almost certainly tell you that the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the Americans fought back. Ask him why the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, and he will probably need some time to gather his thoughts. He might say that the Japanese were aggressive militarists who wanted to take over the world, or at least the Asia-Pacific part of it. Ask him what the United States did to provoke the Japanese, and he will probably say that the Americans did nothing: we were just minding our own business when the crazy Japanese, completely without justification, mounted a sneak attack on us, catching us totally by surprise in Hawaii on Dec. 7, 1941."

Roosevelt, the American president, thundered that Japan’s treacheries that day were “dastardly and unprovoked.” Dastardly: wicked and cruel, by definition. By the dictionary’s terms we must agree. Japan’s severe trespassings against American life and property that morning were dastardly indeed. But were they unprovoked? Here we are less convinced.

Not So Innocent: As we have noted before…In July 1941, the United States government froze all Japanese assets in its possession. In August 1941, the United States government embargoed oil and gasoline exports to Japan. These were done in response to Japanese buccaneering in Indochina.

Meantime, over 80% of Japan’s oil shipped in from the United States. To choke off Japan’s oil was to choke off its oxygenated air. Higgs, in broad summary: “On July 2, 1940, Roosevelt signed the Export Control Act, authorizing the president to license or prohibit the export of essential defense materials.” Under this authority, “[o]n July 31, exports of aviation motor fuels and lubricants and No. 1 heavy melting iron and steel scrap were restricted.” Next, in a move aimed at Japan, Roosevelt slapped an embargo, effective Oct. 16, “on all exports of scrap iron and steel to destinations other than Britain and the nations of the Western Hemisphere.” Finally, on July 26, 1941, Roosevelt “froze Japanese assets in the United States, thus bringing commercial relations between the nations to an effective end. One week later Roosevelt embargoed the export of such grades of oil as still were in commercial flow to Japan.” The British and the Dutch followed suit, embargoing exports to Japan from their colonies in southeast Asia."

Picking a Fight: United States officials understood they were backing Japan into a corner very, very tight. They did this knowing well that Japan might take a desperate armed lunge in response. If you push a man hard and repeatedly… should you be surprised when he clobbers you in the snout?

Higgs, once more: "Roosevelt and his subordinates knew they were putting Japan in an untenable position and that the Japanese government might well try to escape the stranglehold by going to war. Having broken the Japanese diplomatic code, the Americans knew, among many other things, what Foreign Minister Teijiro Toyoda had communicated to Ambassador Kichisaburo Nomura on July 31: “Commercial and economic relations between Japan and third countries, led by England and the United States, are gradually becoming so horribly strained that we cannot endure it much longer. Consequently, our Empire, to save its very life, must take measures to secure the raw materials of the South Seas."

On the 7th of December, 1941, early Sunday morning, the Japanese Empire took its measures… delivering its hammerblow to the American Pacific fleet, snoozing at anchor in the Hawaiian Islands. Japan’s war declaration against the United States (and Great Britain) made very specific mention of the oil sanctions: "Our adversaries, showing not the least spirit of conciliation… have intensified the economic and political pressure to compel… our Empire to submission. This trend of affairs would, if left unchecked… endanger the very existence of our nation. The situation being such as it is, our Empire, for its existence and self-defense, has no other recourse but to appeal to arms and to crush every obstacle in its path." The United States Pacific Fleet was in its path, alas.

Not Just a Crime, But a Blunder: Yet as Talleyrand might have argued: The Pearl Harbor aggression was not merely a crime - it was a blunder. The Japanese had blundered their way into the American game trap. United States officials were adamant that Japan deliver the initial blow. That is because they realized it would incense the American public into a very high state of vengeful incandescence. They would fill the recruiting stations with hundreds of thousands of men, each hot to get his hands around Tojo’s neck.

United States War Secretary Henry Stimson, in a diary entry from Nov. 25, 1941: “The question was how we should maneuver them [the Japanese] into firing the first shot without allowing too much danger to ourselves.” Just weeks later, here is the same Henry Stimson — reflecting on the wrecks of Pearl Harbor: “My first feeling was of relief … that a crisis had come in a way which would unite all our people.” And so the Japanese blunder.

Yet here is a question: Would the American people shake their fists so angrily against Japan… had they read the War Secretary’s personal diary? We are ridden by doubt. They might rather storm his office in demand of answers.

Picking More Fights: We might add: Prior to Pearl Harbor, the United States Navy had been initiating jousts against German U-boats along the Atlantic convoy routes. Was the United States a neutral power prior to December 1941? And did razzing German U-boats along the Atlantic convoy routes constitute a breach of the neutrality acts to which it pledged? The answers are yes.

Many historians will tell you Mr. Roosevelt was attempting to lure the Germans into another Lusitania trap. But Herr Hitler penetrated the plot. With sharp and shrewd eyes he could see the bait worm wriggling upon Roosevelt’s shiny hook. He ordered his men to avoid all tangles with vessels flying the neutral flag of the United States. He issued any U-boat man who had gotten himself so entangled a severe barking - even if his man had shot back only in strictest defense.

Understanding the Devil Doesn’t Mean You Sympathize With Him: Let it go immediately into the record: We do not bless or condone the Japanese aggressions of December 7, 1941, 81 years ago today - or those of Japan’s Teutonic ally. In our residence, Victory in Europe Day and Victory Over Japan Day are events of high patriotic revelry. They rank third and fourth, respectively, behind only Independence Day and Flag Day.

We seek merely to understand their aggressions - a man who understands the devil’s grievances can nonetheless condemn his tradecraft. In light of the severe embargoes arrayed against the Japanese Empire in the summer of 1941… we do understand its aggressions. We are out simply to illustrate that truth is war’s first battlefield fatality. Alas… the world we inhabit is often less a world of clarifying black and white… but confounding and vexing gray."

The Daily "Near You?"

Lynn, Massachusetts, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"The Majority Of Us..."

"The majority of us lead quiet, unheralded lives as we pass through this world. There will most likely be no ticker-tape parades for us, no monuments created in our honor. But that does not lessen our possible impact, for there are scores of people waiting for someone just like us to come along; people who will appreciate our compassion, our unique talents. Someone who will live a happier life merely because we took the time to share what we had to give. Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have a potential to turn a life around. It’s overwhelming to consider the continuous opportunities there are to make our love felt."
- Leo Buscaglia

"The Left Has Plenty Of Plans For This Crisis"

"The Left Has Plenty Of Plans For This Crisis"
by John Wilder

"This post is originally from April, 2021. I would normally be having a new post, but I feel just awful tonight. Tired. The Mrs. had Influenza A, and now I have it, I think. Or something. Unlike when AIDS, the flu, and COVID walked into a bar, this isn't some sort of sick joke. See? I've still got it. I anticipate new content on Friday, and no matter how I feel I should be ready to go for tomorrow's podcast at 9pm Eastern. I'm skipping my normal run 'round the 'net tonight, so I can get some sleep. I would make another sleep joke, but those are so tiring. Take care, all!"
- JW

"The last year has seen more change than the last twenty years, combined. This is to be expected, especially if you give Strauss and Howe’s "The Fourth Turning" idea any credence. A short version of The Fourth Turning (also known as Kondratieff Wave Theory) is that there is a roughly 80-year cycle of human affairs. Let me use the life of my Dad, Pa Wilder, to describe it:

When Pa Wilder was young he spent most of his childhood in Winter, the first defining experience of his life was the Great Depression. Back then, they had printed versions of the Internet that they would get delivered to their house every day, called newspapers. They also had cell phones that never needed charging, and that you could never lose because they were in the living room and conveniently connected by a cord to the wall.

I’m sure all of the kids on the playground talked with Pa about how obvious it was that the Federal Reserve’s® monetary policy, combined with bankers lending to anyone with a pulse led to near financial collapse. Oh, and how their parents couldn’t afford shoes. Thankfully, Pa lived in a farming community, and every little house in town had a very large garden out back. Food from the grocery store?

Why would you spend money on food when you had to pay for the mortgage? That’s the sort of lesson that bored itself into Pa Wilder’s mind. As a kid, he saw people lose houses, he saw people lose fortunes. He saw a nation nearing collapse.

Economic collapse led to the second thing that defined Pa Wilder’s youth: World War II. Not long after Japanese planes attacked Pearl Harbor he was in boot camp in Ft. Sill and before long was a 2nd lieutenant in the Army. The next four years he spent on an all-expenses-paid European vacation

The end of the war was the end of Kondratieff Winter. What followed was Spring. In post-war United States, growth and unrivaled prosperity followed from 1945-1965. Pa Wilder, like the rest of the G.I. generation, came back and built families and factories and farms. They looked out at a world that was shattered, and they made fortunes rebuilding it. They even found Dean Martin’s favorite eel. Don’t remember that? It’s a moray.

Spring was characterized by extreme faith in government institutions – sure the government had fumbled the ball in the Great Depression, but it had unified the country for World War II. It stayed back enough to allow growth, and Eisenhower’s America got out of North Korea and planted the seeds for the Super Science® projects that would provide unmatched weapons systems and the seeds of space exploration.

Spring gives over to Summer. Around 1965, the spiritual awakening was followed in 1975 by the “Me” decade. In Summer, the economy is humming along, the weather is great, and the first questioning of the previous ideas that led to the success of the country begins. It’s probably no coincidence that the disastrous Immigration Act of 1965, the arguably unconstitutional Civil Rights Act of 1964, and Lyndon Johnson’s voter-plantation Great Society acts (1964 and 1965) took place at the start of Summer when Americans were questioning their values, questioning the things that made America great.

Pa Wilder was an established businessman, working as the president of a very conservative farm bank. You could get a loan, but only if you had collateral and a good income stream. Pa Wilder told more people “no” than “yes” for loans. That bothered him, with the exception of the fact that he told me, “I’ve never had to foreclose on a house, son.” To him, it was a moral duty. Thankfully Pa never served in the paratroopers, otherwise, they would have called him “debt from above.”

In society, however, the big splits had started in 1965. The subversion of colleges started and would be nearly complete by the 1980s. Religious decline started, and Nixon got tired of hiding the fiscal shenanigans of the country that gold was exposing. His solution? Get rid of gold.

But Summer was still a good time. Autumn, however, is harvest. Pa Wilder was pretty close to retirement at this point, and the real economic power had moved to the Boomers. Pa’s natural fiscal conservatism led to a strong and stable business. The people that took over from him, however, would “give a loan to anyone with a pickup and a backhoe.” They even loaned out money on haunted houses, places they were sure were going to be repossessed.

Inertia is important in an economic system. But in 1985 the financial systems of the United States began to be harvested. “Greed is good” became the motto, and systems were run entirely for near-term economic benefit. Everyone from Pa Wilder’s generation was dead or retired – the new people in charge had no living memory of the national crisis brought on by The Great Depression.

The end of Autumn is the first chill of Winter, and the end result was the Great Recession (right on time!) in 2007-2008. In the Winter, things fall apart. I’ve been really quite amazed that things have held together so well since that first cold snap. Obama was, well, a disappointment. Trump seemed (in many ways) overwhelmed by the system and couldn’t figure out how to move the levers of power in any significant and lasting ways – which makes sense on a failing system.

That was the starter’s gun on the crisis, the date Winter began. We should have been a long way through it by now, but this Winter is different: The United States had a uniquely dominant position at the start of Winter, having both complete military dominance as well as a strong economic dominance of the world. The Federal Reserve© decided to just print all the money that it could to spend its way into continued prosperity.

Sure, sometimes government wants to stop a crisis so that the citizens can have a stable country. Sometimes. But other times, governments are waiting for the crisis, looking forward to it. Planning on it. In one article titled Sometimes the world needs a crisis: Turning challenges into opportunities(LINK), the Brookings Institute lists the things they love about crises. I admit that some of them are positive, but here are a few that I think are a bit more ominous – these descriptions are directly from Brookings:

Systemic Change: Global crises that crush existing orders and overturn long-held norms, especially extended, large-scale wars, can pave the way for new systems, structures, and values to emerge and take hold. Without such devastation to existing systems and practices, leaders and populations are generally resistant to major changes and to giving up some of their sovereignty to new organizations or rules.

Dramatic Policy Shifts: Sometimes the fear generated from a crisis and corresponding public outcry enables and even forces leaders to make bold and often difficult policy moves, even in countries not involved in or affected by the crisis.

COVID-19 was the big crisis they were waiting for this Winter. As the economic systems unwind under the unsustainable debt the ‘Rona is the perfect opportunity. Imagine the tapestry of that you see was planned. What end is being sought? Well, they told us already. Systemic Change. Changes to virtually every system in the United States. Want to have a nice, neat, prosperous, and orderly community? Too bad. That’s not a thing that’s going to happen. The police will be neutered. How badly will communities suffer? Here’s how bad it is now:

●Leftist controlled Chicago: arrests/stops are down 53 percent, murders are up 65 percent.
●Leftist controlled New York City: arrests/stops are down 38 percent, murders are up 58 percent.
●Leftist controlled Louisville: arrests/stops are down 35 percent, murders are up 87 (not a typo) percent.
●Leftist controlled Minneapolis: arrests/stops are down 42 percent, murders are up 64 percent.
●Leftist controlled Los Angeles: arrests/stops are down 33 percent, murders are up 51 percent.
●Leftist controlled St. Louis: in 2020, the murder rate hit “a 50-year high, with 87 out of every 100,000 residents being murdered.”

When there is murder and mayhem there is control. This is their plan. This is the crisis. Remove police – replace with ideological commissars that aren’t bound by law. Now, if they see a “crime” that they feel is wrong, they can punish it however they see fit. Most commonly, this will just be by removing the protection of the law and letting the mob do the rest. The biggest crimes? The crimes against the Left.

That’s just the first of the planned Systemic Changes. There are more planned.

●Universal basic income.
●Boards to approve hiring at private companies.
●Equity everywhere.
●More rules than you can imagine. All of them will be based on some fear – guns in rural areas will be restricted because people in the city can’t stop killing each other.
●Climate change lunacy: to meet Joe Biden’s climate goals, Americans would be restricted to four pounds (344 milliliters) of meat a year. This will be walked back.
●And your ideas: they probably won’t be as bad as the real plans.

To be clear: Winter is here. The Left has an endless list of Leftist goals to accomplish during the crisis to come. The Winter will be dark. Where are our goals? The Right cannot just have the goals of “what the Left wants, but less,” or, “the opposite of what those guys want."After that? Organization. And leadership. And longjohns. Winter is here."

"None So Blind..."

"Why does truth carry such a dreadful face? Why does subjugation carry
 such a happy mask? It becomes sad when people understand that they
 can lead a better life as long as they bow their heads, ignoring the truth."
- Lionel Suggs

"There are none so blind as those who will not see. The most deluded
 people are those who choose to ignore what they already know.” 
- John Heywood, 1546

Fred Reed, "Ukraine War"

"Ukraine War"
The encirclement of Russia by NATO (i.e. America) is very roughly
 equivalent to having Russian forces in El Paso, Tijuana, and Toronto
by Fred Reed

"Given that pushing a third of Americans are functionally illiterate or close, that twenty percent think that the sun revolves around the earth, and seventy percent cannot name the three branches of the federal government, it isn’t surprising that few have much idea of how the war in Ukraine came about. What does surprise is that so few of the intelligent and schooled have much more grasp. Many of these, friends, say that Putin tries to reconstitute the Soviet Union, that Russia is a threat to NATO, that Putin is (sigh) Hitler, and everything from inflation to falling hair is Putin’s fault. No.

Let’s look at things from the point of view of people who pay more attention: In 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed and Reagan promised Gorbachev that NATO would not move eastward. As a well-known Russian has said, the United States is not agreement capable. It soon began moving NATO eastward, increasing from thirteen countries in NATO to thirty today in an obvious military encirclement of Russia. In 2014 the US attempted a coup in Ukraine aimed at putting an American puppet in Kiev but it didn’t work and Russia retrieved the Crimea. For the next eight or so years NATO, meaning America, trained Ukrainian forces in preparation for the war we now have. This is well known to military analysts and students of eastern Europe.

During this time Russia said over and over and over and over that it wasn’t going to allow Ukraine in NATO, de facto or de jure. This would put American forces on Russia’s border and in Crimea, as well as American naval forces in Sebastopol. American hypersonic nuclear missiles would have been about five minutes of flight time from Moscow.

Look at a map. Note where the Ukraine and the Crimea are. Note that America was wooing Georgia for membership in NATO: More encirclement of Russia. And after Georgia, Azerbaijan, giving American forces access to the Caspian and Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Astrakhan in Russia, and the northern coast of Iran.

This would be very roughly equivalent to having Russian forces in El Paso Tijuana, and Toronto. Do you see why Russia wasn’t going to do this? Which Washington knew, but kept pushing. This gave Russia a choice between two very bad ideas. First, let the Ukraine into NATO, a great victory for Washington, or, second, fight, hoped to be an even greater victory. This was all well understood, calculated, and apparently led by Vicky the Newt Nuland of the State Department.

In Washington, sophisticated people of my acquaintance have never heard of any of this. It isn’t that they disagree, but that they just don’t know. The power of the media to control thought is astonishing.

Why does Washington keep this war going? The proximate answer - as what’s-his-Raytheon, the Secretary of Defense has put it - is to rope Russia into a long, debilitating war that would exhaust it, end it as a world power, and overthrow Vladimir Putin. The gravy on this sirloin was that, or so it was hoped, it would firm up Washington’s control of Europe, make Europe buy more American costume-jewelry weaponry, force Europe to buy high-priced American LNG, and bring more countries, such as Sweden and Finland into NATO. Also, and here we come to the Big Picture, or part of it, the war would end Nordstream II forever.

Blocking the completion of Nordstream II, the Russian under-Baltic gas pipeline to Germany, has been a high-profile goal of American policy for years. How many Americans have heard of it? Why block the pipeline? Because Asia is rising. Asia is rising fast. Not just China, but the whole shebang. China alone has four times the American population, superb universities, several times as many engineering grads annually, the world’s best civil engineering and, in addition to being almost every country’s largest trading partner, is the world’s largest market for almost everything. In many fields it is still behind America, but the gap closes. Washington knows this, and knew that the pipeline would tie Germany into the growing Eurasian ecosystem.

China’s Belt and Road Initiative, its plan to link all of Eurasia - not Asia, Eurasia - into one huge trading bloc, is working, or at least the connectivity is happening. Here we could name many of its new, recent, or underway rail links - China-Vientiane, Pakafuz, China-Mandalay, Lanzhou-Tashkent, China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, Jakarta-Bandung, the now-old Nairobi-Mombasa line. If Asian countries link up and develop commercially, they will dwarf the United States. So much for empire.

Washington has pushed Russia, China, and Iran together into a de facto alliance. This was stupid. The first rule of empire is “never let your enemies unite,” but the US, perhaps not realizing that this is no longer 1955, seems to believe that it can overcome all of them at once. Now India informally leans East, saying that it will trade with Russia, no comments from Washington needed. Trade corridors in Asia open apace, for example the INSTC, the International North-South Transport Corridor, sort of Mumbai-Chabahar-Azerbaijan-Russia. Don’t even think about China’s heavy commercial investment in Latin America and Africa.

Nordstream II was part of a growing connection between Asia and Germany that Washington could not allow. It didn’t, as blowing up the pipeline showed. This was done apparently by England on Washington’s orders. It illustrates American desperation to prevent Europe, a football being fought over by East and West, from engaging commercially with Asia.

The list of Asian advances in commerce, technology, and connectivity could go on for hundreds of pages, and has, in many books. The bottom line, as we say, is that Washington is looking down the barrel of a gun. It has to stop the growing integration of the rest of the world by any possible means as the days of American supremacy wane. The United States has, or may have, a narrow window of opportunity to maintain hegemony. The first step is to exhaust Russia with the current war and then move on to strangle China.

Can it do this? We shall see, but it seems unlikely. The US can compete with China neither in manufacturing nor in building infrastructure - rail lines, cities, ports - for countries around the world. At home it faces poor and declining education, huge trade deficits and national debt, growing poverty as Washington prioritizes its wars over its people, massive corruption, an evaporating technological lead, crime and social disintegration, and domestic disunity. The military with its vast network of bases around the world swallows resources that might alleviate some of the foregoing.

China’s main weaknesses, apart from the Straits of Malacca in a world war, are Taiwan and semiconductors. This Washington understands. The details of the “chip wars” are complex. In a nutshell, America either makes the machinery needed to manufacture semiconductors, or controls the countries that do - chiefly the company ASML in the Netherlands, TSMC in Taiwan, Tokyo Electron in Japan, and South Korea. It prohibits the sale of advanced ships to China. However, control over the main countries in the chip business arouses hostility since companies do not like losing a vast market to further Washington’s global ambitions. Pushback by the industry, including in America, grows.

Regarding Taiwan, Washington seems to be playing the same game it played with Ukraine. China has said, over and over and over and over, that Taiwan is part of China. Under the famous One China policy, which kept the peace for decades, the US agreed that Taiwan was Chinese and Beijing tacitly agreed not to invade. Now Washington is salami-slicing the One China doctrine out of existence, first sending Pelosi to Taipei, then Congressional delegations, then sending arms, and in general ignoring Chinese objections. These are intentional provocations aimed at making Taiwan a de facto independent state. Washington’s intense interest in Taiwan exists because Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the world’s largest and most advanced chip fab, is there. America currently cannot make advanced chips. It’s greatest nightmare is that China might get control of TSMC.

This will eventually force China either to give up Taiwan, which it won’t, or fight. Washington will then, as in the Ukraine, accuse Beijing of starting the war, perhaps send the Navy to defend the island, and supply weapons so that the Chinese can kill each other. Here again the US seems to think we live in the Fifties and the Navy is a fearsome force that will intimidate Beijing. It isn’t. 

None of this is original with me, secret, or hard to find. It is, however, suppressed by the highly controlled American media. Few notice."
o

"How It Very Really Is"

“You know, I've been around the ruling class all my life, and I've been
 quite aware of their total contempt for the people of the country.” 
 - Gore Vidal

While you, of course...

"Maybe..."

“We’ve all heard the warnings and we’ve ignored them. We push our luck. We roll the dice. It’s human nature. When we’re told not to touch something we usually do even if we know better. Maybe because deep down, we’re just asking for trouble.”
- “Meredith Grey”, “Gray’s Anatomy”

If so, we've certainly gotten all we want...

"Breaking: Russia on High Alert, More Attacks; Poland is Mobilizing For War!"

Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 12/6/22:
"Breaking: Russia on High Alert, More Attacks; 
Poland is Mobilizing For War!"
"More attacks on Russian bases in the last 24 hours as nuclear forces are on high alert; Hundreds of tanks land in Poland and Romania for possible campaign into western Ukraine as US on high state of combat readiness. Polish to conduct 200,000 military draft. Ukraine cities will be unliveable by Christmas according to NGO; UK nuclear subs set new record; US tripling weapons production."
Comments here:
o
o
Full screen recommended.
Scott Ritter, 12/7/22:
"Is Russia Running Out of Missiles? 
Ukraine Continues to Shell Civilians"
"We are joined by Konstantin Sivkov, Russian military expert, geopolitician, military political scientist and strategist, Doctor of Military Sciences. Chairman of the Union of Geopoliticians, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Rocket and Artillery Sciences, 1st Rank Captain, Corresponding Member of the RARAN, Member of the Academy of Military Sciences, Vice-President of the Academy of Missile and Artillery Sciences for information policy."
Comments here:

"The Chief Obstacle..."

"The chief obstacle to the progress of the human race is the human race."
- Don Marquis

"In the mass of mankind, I fear, there is too great a majority of fools 
and knaves, who, singly from their number, must to a certain degree 
be respected, though they are by no means respectable."
- Philip Stanhope

"Massive Price Increases At Aldi! This Is Ridiculous! What's Next?"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures with Danno, 12/7/22:
"Massive Price Increases At Aldi! 
This Is Ridiculous! What's Next?"
"In today's vlog we are at Aldi and are noticing massive price increases! We are here to check out skyrocketing prices, and a lot of empty shelves! It's getting rough out here as stores seem to be struggling with getting products!"
Comments here:

"Stop Lying to Me"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly 12/7/22
"Stop Lying to Me"
"You can believe anything you want. We are not heading anywhere. We are in
 a big fat recession right now. What’s going to happen next will be a depression."
Comments here:
o

"Giving Anarchy a Bad Name"

"Giving Anarchy a Bad Name"
by Jeff Thomas

"Here we have a photo of Corporal Maxwell Klinger, a character in the American television comedy, M.A.S.H., filmed in the early 1970’s. The Klinger character was written as a soldier in the Korean War, who hoped that, if he became a transvestite, he’d qualify for a Section Eight discharge and would be sent home. In this photo, Corporal Klinger was taking part in a troop inspection.

In the early 70’s, America was still involved in the Viet Nam War. The liberal press graphically covered that war and its travesties – to the point that a majority of Americans became sick of the seemingly endless (and pointless) conflict and thoroughly sympathized with the Klinger character.

But, make no mistake about it: Corporal Klinger was an anarchist. He did not desert on the firing line; he was not violent to his superiors; he simply dressed in an entertaining series of female outfits in order to be classified as insane, so he could be allowed to go home. His superior, Captain Pierce, sympathized with Klinger’s effort, often commenting something to the effect, "Do I think he’s insane? Only if it’s insane to object to having your government send you half way around the world in order to get shot at."

But the 70’s were different times. Back then, the media were not owned by the same corporations that were profiting from the war. Today, the major corporations that profit from warfare not only donate heavily to the political campaigns of both political parties, thereby assuring that there will be a proliferation of unnecessary wars; they also control both the news programs and the film industry, assuring that there will be no equivalent of M.A.S.H. for present-day Americans to watch.

There will also be no news broadcasts that expose the US government creating and funding rebel organizations such as ISIS – that create chaos that the US must then come in and "control." If the American people were to receive such news on their televisions, they would today be asking meaningful questions as they did in the 70’s, such as, "How is it possible for the US, the greatest military power on earth, to invade a country like Afghanistan, fighting against disorganized sheepherders for 20 years, spending trillions dollars doing it, and not gaining any ground whatever – in effect, being no further ahead than when they started?"

And how can returning veterans of that war be treated by Government as being potential terrorists - classified as "threats to democracy" upon their return? The American media of today does not present these questions to viewers and they shall not do so in the future.

But, what of the anarchists? Of course, when we think of anarchy, we think of groups like the SLA (Symbionese Liberation Army), who, at the time when M.A.S.H. was being aired, were a small group of people who armed themselves, robbed banks, kidnapped and killed people in the name of "liberation." The SLA were not, in fact, terrorists; they were a small gang of thugs. They were annihilated by the Los Angeles police, in a shoot-out and conflagration, and justifiably so, as they had violently aggressed against others without provocation.

Today, we incorrectly see groups like Black Lives Matter and Antifa as anarchists and, of course, we’re encouraged to view them in this light, as they’re groups that use force in order to terrorise others. Presented in this light, we could be forgiven if we regard anarchists as "evil people who wish to destroy us." Of course, we would oppose their activities and even their existence. They represent force, violence and intimidation.

The trouble is, "anarchy" is being misrepresented by both governments and the media in order to assure that the citizenry is compliant. In truth, a definition of anarchy is, "The absence or non-recognition of authority." Another definition is, "The absence of government and absolute freedom of the individual." What these true definitions represent, therefore, is, "leave me alone to live my life as I choose. As long as I don’t aggress against others, my liberty should be respected."

Of course, this was the primary principle of America’s founding fathers – that the US would be a republic – a state of rule in which the rights of the individual are of paramount importance – not the will of leaders, or even the will of the majority. And, in M.A.S.H, we have Corporal Klinger defending that inalienable right. He’s a classic anarchist – a draftee into a system that he does not believe in. He offers no force, he simply states, in a peaceful manner, that he does not wish to participate in his government’s invasion of a sovereign nation halfway round the world. The fact that he does so through a comical manner makes his anarchy no less valid.

During America’s involvement in the Viet Nam War, peace activist Charlotte Keyes wrote an article entitled, "Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came?" The title became a minor anthem thereafter. Its supporters were anarchists – people who suggested that governments can create all the aggressive foreign adventures they want, but those who are being invited to become the cannon fodder in those adventures should be able to choose not to participate. And, they should have every right to do so.

Centuries ago, leaders rode the horse that was at the head of the charge, followed by any who wished to arm themselves and fall in behind the leader. Today, that’s decidedly not the case. The entire world is a grand chessboard, as Zbigniew Brzezinski has so eloquently described it, and political leaders never see the back of a horse. They, instead, provide for themselves the safest of perches upon which to sit, whilst they send out the gullible citizenry to do battle. They fund their wars through taxation - the fruits of the labour of the people they are elected to represent.

The people of a country pay the price with their earnings and their blood. The leaders take no personal risk, but are the recipients of the spoils. Not surprising then, that they do all they can to discredit not only the anarchist, but the very concept of anarchy. To the American founding fathers, the anarchist was respected for his reasoning and his courage. With or without the dress, the anarchists of today are equally worthy of our respect. They represent the voice of Liberty just as much as they did in 1776."
o
Full screen recommended.
"Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came?"

"It’s a Conspiracy!"

"It’s a Conspiracy!"
by Jim Rickards

"I work hard to avoid promoting conspiracy theories. They’re too easy to adopt as explanations for all sorts of strange events and are highly implausible in most cases. They require extreme amounts of intelligence, coordination and competence that, quite frankly, the alleged conspirators simply aren’t capable of. Usually, stupidity is a perfectly good explanation especially when it comes to politicians and other public officials.

Even when elite coordination is apparent it’s not necessarily a conspiracy at work. It may just be the case that like-minded individuals are pursuing a common goal. Elites mostly went to a fairly small group of top schools and took similar courses taught by a tight-knit group of academics. They came up through the ranks in the same government agencies and multilateral institutions. With that much in common, it’s no surprise they think alike and share the same globalist goals. At the same time, some conspiracies are real. It’s naïve to believe otherwise.

The Real Deal: But how do you distinguish between the dime-a-dozen conspiracy theories and the real thing? Smoking gun evidence helps, but that’s rare. Firsthand experience with the matter under consideration is one of the best approaches. That brings me to this story…

It involves the CIA, the failed crypto exchange FTX, money-laundered campaign contributions to Democrats, the Pakistani bank BCCI (which was a criminal enterprise on stilts that collapsed in 1991) al-Qaida, Jeffery Epstein and the crypto stablecoin Tether. That’s a lot to unpack.

I handled Citibank’s financial control in Africa in the 1980s and BCCI was a bank we ran into constantly. We knew it was bad news then years before the collapse and made sure we kept as far away from them as possible. I also converted Citi to Islamic banking in Pakistan around the same time. My Pakistan experience was one reason I was recruited by the CIA to do financial counterterrorism aimed at al-Qaida and others in the 2000s. That experience deserves a few words…

Project Prophesy: The CIA recruited me as part of Project Prophesy, which was launched as a strategic study under the direction of CIA veteran Randy Tauss, who was also a seasoned options trader. I was tapped to join the group based in part on my experience with Islamic banking in Pakistan. That was considered useful in understanding the mindset of potential terrorist traders. I later became one of two project managers reporting to Tauss.

In 2004, I helped build a working prototype of a Project Prophesy machine using artificial intelligence, applied mathematics, news feeds, price feeds, computing and human oversight. We were looking for terrorist insider trading. We developed Project Prophesy in total secrecy. And much of my work is classified. But I can tell you that on Aug. 7, 2006, Prophesy’s system uncovered warning signs of an impending terrorist attack. Three days later in London, a plot to blow up 10 U.S. passenger jets was thwarted. Twenty-four Pakistani extremists were arrested.

The Government Ignored My Warnings: Then in 2007, my system spotted an impending crash in the real estate and stock markets. I presented my findings to Treasury officials. But they ignored my warnings. We all know what happened next.

We were ready at that point to build a more robust version of this for the CIA and sought additional funding. But the CIA decided not to move forward with the project mainly for political reasons. They were worried about possible adverse headlines if it were made to appear that the intelligence community was trolling through citizens’ personal trading records. That was never true; we used open-source price feeds to get initial leads and then operated through the judicial system after that. But the publicity risk was there and the CIA did not want to take a chance.

After 2008, I moved on to other projects, but I never lost sight of the potential predictive power that we had discovered in Project Prophesy. I learned that the techniques I developed were useful far beyond the realm of counterterrorism. They could be used for any kind of geopolitical threats carried out in capital markets.

Cryptos and Capital Markets: And I’ve been expert on cryptos since 2010 shortly after they were created in 2009. Besides, I’ve followed the Tether story for years and have been able to drill down on FTX in real-time. In other words, I’ve had enough hands-on experience in third-world bank fraud, intelligence work, cryptocurrencies and other touch points to know this story hangs together and makes a highly credible case.

I’ll leave the story to you rather than repeat all of the details. Here’s the main takeaway: FTX is just the tip of the iceberg. Tether does not have the liquid dollar assets it claims to support its $80 billion of coins issued. When Tether does collapse the impact will be multiples of the FTX impact and will certainly affect mainstream finance leading to bank and hedge fund failures.

If the Tether collapse is delayed somewhat it will be because the CIA finds it so useful in financing Ukraine (a Democratic money-laundering scheme) and so-called “color revolutions” around the world. It’s all playing out before our eyes. Meanwhile, the crypto dominos continue to fall, and will continue to fall until they’ve knocked down mainstream finance.

Bye, Bye, BlockFi: The crypto exchange BlockFi has filed for bankruptcy. BlockFi had been on the ropes for some time, and finally suspended redemptions by its customers on Nov. 11 because it lacked available funds to repay those customers. It had agreed to be acquired by a bigger crypto exchange FTX, but that deal was abandoned after FTX was revealed to be the biggest crypto fraud of all. In the end, BlockFi was illiquid with a crashing valuation and no way to pay customers, so it closed its doors and filed for bankruptcy.

There are a number of important lessons for investors to take from this even if you have no direct involvement with cryptocurrencies…The first is that the crypto world is densely connected. One exchange will leave its funds on deposit with another exchange and so on in a daisy chain of interlocking deposits. Of course, if one link in the chain fails, the entire chain fails, and no one is repaid. That’s bad enough, but what has been happening in crypto land is even worse.

House of Cards: The parties who receive deposits from others borrow against those deposits. This introduces leverage so that the amounts involved in a collapse are far greater than the amounts originally received. Many of the participants in this reckless conduct offered to pay customers interest. How could they offer interest when the actual cryptos are not securities and don’t earn anything themselves?

Don’t ask. A party paying “interest” would receive a yield from another party paying “interest” so that the interest component was also added to the original fraud. Interlocking deposits, borrowings, leverage, interest, derivatives and more were all part of the crypto scam. In addition, many of the “billion dollar” losses you read about in the crypto world are not actually dollars but losses, loans and deposits in cryptocurrencies that are valued in dollars at highly inflated values of the cryptos (another form of leverage).

What’s left is a house of cards that is now tumbling down. Luna and Three Arrows failed before FTX. BlockFi and others have failed since. Genesis may be the next in line. This slow-motion sequential collapse is far from over. It’s just a matter of time before the crypto-world collapse leaks into the mainstream financial world of banks, brokers and hedge funds. All I can say is give it time."

Tuesday, December 6, 2022