Full screen recommended.
Strong language alert!
Gerald Celente, 3/14/23:
"The Bankster Bust. As Warned: Crash Coming"
"The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing
global current events forming future trends."
Comments here:
So, we rise from the rubble...
Tuesday, March 14, 2023
"One Giant Mess"
"One Giant Mess"
Another government crisis, another stupid government acronym...
by Bill Bonner and Joel Bowman
"Here’s another nice mess you’ve gotten us into."
~ Oliver Hardy
San Martin, Argentina - "We almost feel sorry for Jerome Powell. He got the whole world into another nice mess. And now, people turn their lonely, tired eyes to him. “Help us. Save us. Heal us.” But what can he do? Just another stupid thing…
We have family visiting, so we’ll be brief. But before we start, we would like to thank all the many readers who wrote to us recently with comments (most of them positive) about our service. Many of the comments left us humbled, wondering how we can possibly meet such high expectations. We doubt we are worthy of the high praise we received. All we can say is that we are grateful for your support and will do our best to earn it.
In the last few days we’ve had an illustration of how booms work. How busts work. And how the Fed works. We also see more evidence that the Fed will not be able to stop inflation.
Non-Transitory Inflation: First…the Fed created an outsized bubble – by holding interest rates too low for too long. People borrowed to take advantage of the low rates. Then, the Fed, effectively, “printed money” to meet the demand – particularly from the government, which was handing out trillions of dollars’ worth of ‘stimmie’ checks and PPP loans.
Anyone and everyone who could add 2 + 2 – except perhaps the Ph.Ds. who work for the Fed – knew that inflation wouldn’t be long in coming. And when it showed up, the Fed made another huge error. It judged the inflation “transitory.” No need for decisive action.
The next foolish move was to try to counter the inflation – which was running above 8% – with tiny rate hikes of only 50 or 75 basis points. Wall Street speculators can add, even if the Fed can’t. For an entire year, they could still borrow at 3% - 7% below inflation. Debt continued to increase. Consumer prices too.
The modus operandi of the Fed is to feed money to the rich (with ultra-low lending rates)…while trying to stop anything bad from happening by backstopping the markets. But then, as debt increases, something bad always does happen…and the Fed then makes it worse by making it easier to borrow even more money.
Here’s the good news. Last week, two banks that catered to venture capitalists and hedge funds in the tech and crypto sectors caved in. That is what you’d expect. They took big risks. They made big profits. And then their bets went bad.
All of this was obvious…and predictable. And no real biggie. It’s why we have corrections, tow trucks and funeral parlors. People make mistakes. Markets get ahead of themselves. Things need to be set straight…and put back into balance.
Another Crisis, Another Stupid Acronym: But along cometh the Fed with another big error. Typically, bank deposits are protected by the feds, up to $250,000. Bigger deposits are not. But now even the biggest, richest and most reckless speculators can look to the feds for back up finance. From The Wall Street Journal…"Meet the BTFP, the Fed’s 2023 Crisis Facility." "Among measures to counter fallout from the failure of Silicon Valley Bank, the Federal Reserve said it would create a new lending program for banks: the Bank Term Funding Program, or BTFP.
The facility will allow banks to take advances from the Fed for up to a year by pledging Treasurys, mortgage-backed bonds and other debt as collateral. By allowing banks to pledge their bonds, they can meet customer withdrawals without having to sell their bonds at a loss, which is what Silicon Valley Bank did last week, sparking a run on the bank.…the Fed won’t look to the market value of the collateral, which in many cases reflect big unrealized losses due to the jump in interest rates.
…The Treasury Department is providing $25 billion of credit protection to the Fed just in case. “The Federal Reserve does not anticipate that it will be necessary to draw on these backstop funds,” the Fed said in its announcement Sunday night."
It’s done it again! The Fed has made a bad situation worse, by protecting speculators from their own errors. The Washington Post comments: "The Fed’s fight against inflation just got downgraded. The crisis, which has already prompted a large response from the Fed and other regulators in the form of a new special lending facility and measures to make depositors of the failed banks whole, is raising questions about whether the central bank can continue hiking interest rates in the face of an increasingly fragile financial system.
The Fed says it will continue sparring with inflation. But as soon inflation lands a punch, the Fed will take a dive. It will bail out the banks (and their big customers)…and the little guys will pay higher prices for everything."
Joel’s Note: "Inflation is expected to have increased to an annual rate of 101.7% in February, according to median estimates in a Reuters poll released Monday. That equates to a 6.2% increase for the month of February alone, up slightly from the previous month. Goldman Sachs forecast a 101.3% rise in prices, year-over-year, as inflation rips through the economy and decimates the savings of…
Oh, wait… sorry, we were looking at the Argentine data. Whoops! We’ll shelve that copy for a future date. Meanwhile, back in Los Estados Unidos…Consumer prices increased 6% for the month of February, according to the Labor Department’s Consumer Price Index (CPI), out this morning. That’s down from 6.4% in January, though still a mile above the Fed’s 2% target rate. On a monthly basis, prices rose 0.4%, following a 0.5% increase in January. That was up from a slight decrease (to 0.1% from 0.2%) over the previous month.
Thus spake Fed Head, Jerome Hayden Powell, to the US Senate…“Although inflation has been moderating in recent months, the process of getting inflation back down to two percent has a long way to go and is likely to be bumpy.”
Core CPI (that is, the Fed’s preferred measure… this one that excludes prices that don’t readily cooperate, like food and energy) was up 0.5% from January and 5.5% on the year. (Energy was up 5.2%; food 9.5%. Not great news, if you need those things…) Continued Powell…“The historical record cautions strongly against prematurely loosening policy. We will stay the course until the job is done.”
Meanwhile, First Republic Bank and Charles Schwab tanked yesterday on fears of contagion in the banking sector (shares of the two mid-sized banks plummeted 77% and 20% respectively during the session). And yet, the rest of the market appears to be reading from a different playbook entirely, bidding up stocks on the assumption the collapse of SVB and Signature Bank will be enough for the Fed to finally pivot and begin hosing the joint down with free-flowing fiat once again.
What gives? As usual, Dan Denning was on the case from his frozen bolthole up in Laramie, Wyoming. Here’s a word of caution, from an email he fired off to the BPR team this morning… “Remember, history shows that recessions and stock market corrections usually begin AFTER the rate hiking cycle, when the Fed CUTS.” And here’s the chart he attached…
Explains Dan: “The blue line is the Wilshire 5,000 to broadest index of publicly traded stocks. The scale is on the left. The red line is the effective Fed Funds rate. Scale on the right. When rate cutting began in 2000 and 2008, falling stock prices and the recession were not far behind.”
And why was that, the inquisitive reader wonders? “Because, as usual, Fed policy was behind the curve,” explains Dan. “It hiked rates into the recession and stock market correction it had caused with easy rates. If history is any guide, Wall Street might get what it wishes for, The Pivot… and then NOT what it wishes for, the recession and the mean reversion in stocks to follow.”
"Tucker: Feds Using Bank Meltdown to Kill Off Regional/Local Banks, Consolidate Power"
"Tucker: Feds Using Bank Meltdown to Kill Off Regional/Local Banks,
Consolidate Power… Warns of Digital Currency, That Bank Run Is Intentional"
"Fox News host Tucker Carlson questioned what the federal government would get in return for “backstopping” failed banks like Silicon Valley Bank Monday. “What we know is the Biden administration is backstopping these deposits, okay. But that’s not the end of the story, in some ways it’s the beginning,” Carlson, a co-founder of the Daily Caller News Foundation, said. “So here is where you pause and ask yourself a question that too few seem to be considering right now: They’re doing this, what are they going to get in return? Well, something for sure.”
Federal regulators shut down Silicon Valley Bank Friday after its stock price collapsed and customers began a bank run following the financial institution’s disclosure of a $1.8 billion loss on asset sales due to high interest rates, CNBC reported. Depositors who had accounts at Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, which was shut down by regulators Sunday, will be able to fully recover their funds, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation announced in conjunction with the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve Sunday."
via thegatewaypundit: "Tucker Carlson went there tonight - Tucker told his audience if people don’t start making lots of noise we’re going to see a government controlled digital currency. Tucker Carlson opened his show on Monday by discussing the banking crisis in the country today. On Monday morning trading was halted on 20 banks as the markets opened. The New York Stock Exchange halted trading at Charles Schwab."
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"Shopping Trip To Meijer! Great Deals!"
Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno,3/14/23:
"Shopping Trip To Meijer! Great Deals!"
"In today's vlog we are at Meijer, and although we are seeing more price increases on groceries, we are finding some great deals. It's getting rough out here as stores grocery prices continue to skyrocket."
Comments here:
"The Ripple Effect From the Bank Crisis"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly 3/14/23:
"The Ripple Effect From the Bank Crisis"
"The damage is just starting to be felt. Globally there are problems that are affecting so many different industries with the banking crisis. This is just the beginning of the ripple effect and the damage it’s going to cause."
Comments here:
Gregory Mannarino, "Alert! Too Big To Fail? Banking System Collapse? No! This Is A Deliberate Consolidation of Power!"
Gregory Mannarino, AM 3/14/23:
"Alert! Too Big To Fail? Banking System Collapse?
No! This Is A Deliberate Consolidation of Power!"
Comments here:
"Economic Market Snapshot 3/14/23"
"Economic Market Snapshot 3/14/23"
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Down the rabbit hole of psychopathic greed and insanity...
Only the consequences are real - to you!
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"It's a Big Club, and you ain't in it.
You and I are not in the Big Club."
- George Carlin
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A comprehensive, essential daily read.
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Financial Stress Index
"The OFR Financial Stress Index (OFR FSI) is a daily market-based snapshot of stress in global financial markets. It is constructed from 33 financial market variables, such as yield spreads, valuation measures, and interest rates. The OFR FSI is positive when stress levels are above average, and negative when stress levels are below average. The OFR FSI incorporates five categories of indicators: credit, equity valuation, funding, safe assets and volatility. The FSI shows stress contributions by three regions: United States, other advanced economies, and emerging markets."
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Job cuts and much more.
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Commentary, highly recommended:
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"The more I see of the monied classes,
the better I understand the guillotine."
- George Bernard Shaw
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Oh yeah... beyond words. Any I know anyway...
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And now... The End Game...
Monday, March 13, 2023
"Bank Runs Have Begun! Wells Fargo Leaves Millions Of Americans In Lurch At Worst Possible Time"
Full screen recommended.
"Bank Runs Have Begun! Wells Fargo Leaves
Millions Of Americans In Lurch At Worst Possible Time"
by Epic Economist
"When it rains, it pours. On the exact same day that we witnessed the second largest bank failure in U.S. history, Wells Fargo experienced an unprecedented nationwide computer glitch that caused countless numbers of account holders to have “incorrect balances” and “missing transactions”. This is yet another example that demonstrates why it is never wise to put all of your eggs into one basket. If you have all of your money in just one bank, you may wake up one day and find that you are suddenly not able to access any of it. For years I have been telling my readers to spread their assets around, because our banking system is far more vulnerable than most people realize.
In particular, I have never been a fan of Wells Fargo. A nationwide computer glitch at Wells Fargo left irate customers with incorrect balances and missing transactions Friday morning, sometimes dipping accounts into negative balances.
Others anticipated Chase Bank and Bank of America would see an influx of unhappy Wells Fargo customers. JPMorgan Chase is the nation’s largest bank by assets, at $3.2 trillion, and Charlotte-based Bank of America is its second largest with $2.4 trillion in assets. Another Wells Fargo customer tweeted about “definitely closing” their account, using a SpongeBob meme to show how they felt — like they were begging for money.
Wells Fargo is further proof to keep cash on hand for use. In the blink of an eye, a computer glitch or whatever, your funds are inaccessible. The number one thing that you should want from any bank is security."
Comments here:
"I Took My Money Out Of The Bank Today; Investors Panic Over Bank Bloodbath"
Jeremiah Babe, 3/13/23:
"I Took My Money Out Of The Bank Today;
Investors Panic Over Bank Bloodbath"
Comments here:
Musical Interlude: Gnomusy (David Caballero), "Footprints On The Sea"
Gnomusy (David Caballero), "Footprints On The Sea"
"A Look to the Heavens"
"Do you see the bat? It haunts this cosmic close-up of the eastern Veil Nebula. The Veil Nebula itself is a large supernova remnant, the expanding debris cloud from the death explosion of a massive star. While the Veil is roughly circular in shape and covers nearly 3 degrees on the sky toward the constellation of the Swan (Cygnus), NGC 6995, known informally as the Bat Nebula, spans only 1/2 degree, about the apparent size of the Moon. That translates to 12 light-years at the Veil's estimated distance, a reassuring 1,400 light-years from planet Earth.
In the composite of image data recorded through narrow band filters, emission from hydrogen atoms in the remnant is shown in red with strong emission from oxygen atoms shown in hues of blue. Of course, in the western part of the Veil lies another seasonal apparition: the Witch's Broom Nebula."
"The Monstrous Thing..."
“The monstrous thing is not that men have created roses out of this dung heap, but that, for some reason or other, they should want roses. For some reason or other man looks for the miracle, and to accomplish it he will wade through blood. He will debauch himself with ideas, he will reduce himself to a shadow if for only one second of his life he can close his eyes to the hideousness of reality. Everything is endured – disgrace, humiliation, poverty, war, crime, ennui – in the belief that overnight something will occur, a miracle, which will render life tolerable. And all the while a meter is running inside and there is no hand that can reach in there and shut it off.
All the while someone is eating the bread of life and drinking the wine, some dirty fat cockroach of a priest who hides away in the cellar guzzling it, while up above in the light of the street a phantom host touches the lips and the blood is pale as water. And out of the endless torment and misery no miracle comes forth, no microscopic vestige of relief. Only ideas, pale, attenuated ideas which have to be fattened by slaughter; ideas which come forth like bile, like the guts of a pig when the carcass is ripped open.
Somehow the realization that nothing was to be hoped for had a salutary effect upon me. For weeks and months, for years, in fact, all my life I had been looking forward to something happening, some intrinsic event that would alter my life, and now suddenly, inspired by the absolute hopelessness of everything, I felt relieved, felt as though a great burden had been lifted from my shoulders. At dawn I parted company with the young Hindu, after touching him for a few francs, enough for a room. Walking toward Montparnasse I decided to let myself drift with the tide, to make not the least resistance to fate, no matter in what form it presented itself.
Nothing that had happened to me thus far had been sufficient to destroy me; nothing had been destroyed except my illusions. I myself was intact. The world was intact. Tomorrow there might be a revolution, a plague, an earthquake; tomorrow there might not be left a single soul to whom one could turn for sympathy, for aid, for faith. It seemed to me that the great calamity had already manifested itself, that I could be no more truly alone than at this very moment. I made up my mind that I would hold on to nothing, that I would expect nothing, that henceforth I would live as an animal, a beast of prey, a rover, a plunderer. Even if war were declared, and it were my lot to go, I would grab the bayonet and plunge it, plunge it up to the hilt. And if rape were the order of the day then rape I would, and with a vengeance.
At this very moment, in the quiet dawn of a new day, was not the earth giddy with crime and distress? Had one single element of man’s nature been altered, vitally, fundamentally altered, by the incessant march of history? By what he calls the better part of his nature, man has been betrayed, that is all. At the extreme limits of his spiritual being man finds himself again naked as a savage. When he finds God, as it were, he has been picked clean: he is a skeleton. One must burrow into life again in order to put on flesh. The word must become flesh; the soul thirsts.
At this very moment, in the quiet dawn of a new day, was not the earth giddy with crime and distress? Had one single element of man’s nature been altered, vitally, fundamentally altered, by the incessant march of history? By what he calls the better part of his nature, man has been betrayed, that is all. At the extreme limits of his spiritual being man finds himself again naked as a savage. When he finds God, as it were, he has been picked clean: he is a skeleton. One must burrow into life again in order to put on flesh. The word must become flesh; the soul thirsts.
On whatever crumb my eye fastens, I will pounce and devour. If to live is the paramount thing, then I will live, even if I must become a cannibal. Heretofore I have been trying to save my precious hide, trying to preserve the few pieces of meat that hid my bones. I am done with that. I have reached the limits of endurance. My back is to the wall; I can retreat no further. As far as history goes I am dead. If there is something beyond I shall have to bounce back. I have found God, but he is insufficient. I am only spiritually dead. Physically I am alive. Morally I am free. The world which I have departed is a menagerie. The dawn is breaking on a new world, a jungle world in which the lean spirits roam with sharp claws. If I am a hyena I am a lean and hungry one: I go forth to fatten myself.”
- Henry Miller, "Tropic of Cancer"
"Life Is Inconvenient..."
"One of life's best coping mechanisms is to know the difference between an inconvenience and a problem. If you break your neck, if you have nothing to eat, if your house is on fire – then you’ve got a problem. Everything else is an inconvenience. Life is inconvenient. Life is lumpy. A lump in the oatmeal, a lump in the throat and a lump in the breast are not the same kind of lump. One needs to learn the difference."
- Robert Fulghum
The Poet: Robinson Jeffers, "We Are Those People"
"We Are Those People"
"I have abhorred the wars and despised the liars,
laughed at the frightened
And forecast victory; never one moment's doubt.
But now not far, over the backs of some crawling years, the next
Great war's column of dust and fire writhes
Up the sides of the sky: it becomes clear that we too may suffer
What others have, the brutal horror of defeat -
Or if not in the next, then in the next - therefore watch Germany
And read the future. We wish, of course, that our women
Would die like biting rats in the cellars,
our men like wolves on the mountain:
It will not be so. Our men will curse, cringe, obey;
Our women uncover themselves to the grinning victors
for bits of chocolate."
- Robinson Jeffers
“One Last Smile For My Old Friend”
Full screen recommended.
“One Last Smile For My Old Friend”
by Iain Burns
“This is the magical moment a dying chimpanzee recognizes her old friend and gives him an emotional farewell. Mama, the 59-year-old former matriarch at Royal Burgers Zoo in the Netherlands, was curled up in a ball and refusing food until the arrival of Professor Jan van Hooff, who she had known since 1972. At first she did not realize that her old friend had come to see her and remained on the floor as he stroked her. But her bond with Professor van Hooff – who co-founded her chimp colony at the Arnhem zoo – was deep enough to shake her from her gloom. The terminally ill chimp, who was fast approaching the end of her life, can be seen reacting with pure joy when she realizes who has come to see her. Mama screeched with delight and beamed with a smile while greeting the professor. Screeching with pleasure and smiling in delight, Mama can be seen stretching out her hand and stroking Professor van Hooff’s head in greeting. The video was filmed in April 2016. Mama died just a week after giving her old friend a heartfelt farewell.”
"Pajama Nation: Americans Have Morphed Into the People of Walmart" (Excerpt)
"Pajama Nation: Americans Have
Morphed Into the People of Walmart"
by Rockaboatus
Excerpt: "If one wants to see what a huge segment of the American people have morphed into, look no farther than the ‘People of Walmart’ website. It features the obscenely unbecoming clothes that people wear while shopping at Walmart. The site is both hysterical and depressing at the same time. Though it pokes fun at sloppy Walmart shoppers, the truth is that vast numbers of Americans dress like this at any place they patronize. It’s often difficult at times to distinguish between a sloppy but employed person and a homeless bum. Some have called it “hobo-chic.”
It has become common in America to see someone wearing a hoodie, backward baseball cap, torn jeans, a ‘wife-beater,’ or their baggy pajamas to the grocery store, the DMV, or to the movies. Most people probably don’t even notice it anymore because it has become a regular feature of what Americans wear. A large sign had to be posted at the local courthouse where I live to remind visitors to wear shoes and that tank-tops are not allowed. Americans, it seems, are quite content in attiring themselves like complete slobs. They can’t be bothered to wear appropriate and form-fitting clothes. Comedian Bill Mahr was right when he said on his Real Time show in 2013 that Americans won’t be happy until they can go shopping in a diaper!"
Full article is here:
"Why?"
"Is there an answer to the question of why bad things happen to good people? The response would be… to forgive the world for not being perfect, to forgive God for not making a better world, to reach out to the people around us, and to go on living despite it all, no longer asking why something happened, but asking how we will respond, what we intend to do now that it has happened."
- Harold S. Kushner
"Can The Federal Reserve Stop The Avalanche Of Bank Runs That Has Already Begun?"
"Can The Federal Reserve Stop The Avalanche
Of Bank Runs That Has Already Begun?"
by Michael Snyder
Excerpt: "What in the world just happened? On Friday, Silicon Valley Bank collapsed and was taken over by regulators, and then on Sunday regulators swooped in and shut down New York’s Signature Bank. In a desperate attempt to prop up faith in our rapidly failing banking system, the Federal Reserve unveiled an emergency plan late on Sunday that is absolutely staggering. All of the depositors at Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank will be protected, and all of them will have access to their money right away. They aren’t calling this a “bail out”, but that is essentially what it is. But will it be enough to stop the bank runs that are already happening?
Late last week, huge lines at Silicon Valley Bank quickly made headlines all over the nation."
Full article is here:
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Related:
"Massive Price Increases At Big Lots! This Is Ridiculous!"
Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, 3/13/23:
"Massive Price Increases At Big Lots! This Is Ridiculous!"
"In today's vlog we are at Big Lots, and are noticing massive price increases! This is not good as we are also seeing empty shelves everywhere! It's getting rough out here as stores seem to be struggling with getting products, and then charging extremely high prices!"
Comments here:
"The Tip of the Iceberg - Banking Crisis"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly 3/13/23:
"The Tip of the Iceberg - Banking Crisis"
"This is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the Banking Crisis. We are starting to see other experts step forward, saying that Silicon Valley Bank was a problem in progress for months. You’re going to see a lot of companies affected by this globally."
Comments here:
"Situation Critical: The Fed. Begins "Emergency" Measures To Stabilize The Banking System"
Gregory Mannarino, AM 3/13/23:
"Situation Critical: The Fed. Begins "Emergency"
Measures To Stabilize The Banking System"
Comments here:
"Crack... Crack... Crack..."
"Crack... Crack... Crack..."
Silvergate Bank... Silicon Valley Bank... Signature Bank... ?
By Bill Bonner
San Martin, Argentina - "Was that the ‘something’ we were waiting to ‘break?’ Business Insider: "The Silicon Valley Bank meltdown may incite the Federal Reserve to cut rates by 100 basis points by December to prevent contagion in the financial system, Larry McDonald said. That would mark a sharp reversal from the central bank's current course of aggressive tightening to rein in inflation."
Recall our forecast: the Fed will continue raising rates ‘until something breaks.’ A California bank broke on Friday. This morning comes news of more breakage. Deadline: "New York State regulators took over Signature Bank today, the second financial institution to fold in less than a week as the FDIC and Treasury, however, assured depositors at both that they would be made whole in an attempt to stem the growing crisis.
“Today we are taking decisive actions to protect the U.S. economy by strengthening public confidence in our banking system. This step will ensure that the U.S. banking system continues to perform its vital roles of protecting deposits and providing access to credit to households and businesses in a manner that promotes strong and sustainable economic growth,” the Treasury Department, Federal Reserve, and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation said in a joint statement Sunday."
A Bear in a China Store: Both banks were shut down by regulators – after big losses. The bonds of SVB, for example, fell to 31 cents on the dollar. But that’s what happens when the Fed raises rates. This is the same Fed, by the way, that enticed everyone to borrow trillions of dollars by dangling low interest rates in front of them – for more than 10 years.
Having created a dangerous and debilitating debt bubble, the Fed is now determined to take the air out of it…as long as lower interest rates don’t cause too much trouble. But in an economy with $90 trillion of delicate chinaware, bought on credit, even a small increase in interest rates is bound to cause a lot of breakage. That is the cracking noise we hear coming from California and New York. And while we doubt these are the ‘breaks’ that will cause the Fed to pivot, they help us understand how the crackpots at the Fed crack the pots.
Dan explained in his Friday note that it was under the watchful eyes of the Fed’s thousands of bank regulators…and thousands more analysts on Wall Street…that the “second biggest bank collapse in US history [Silicon Valley Bank]...unfolded … without a single person issuing a peep of warning.” Dan Denning: “Looking at the numbers, deposits at SVB went from $60 billion in 2019 to $189 billion in 2022. The IPO/SPAC/tech boom was good to SVP. But what does a bank do with all that depositor cash?” What could it do? It bought bonds. And then, as interest rates rose, bonds fell.
On the Bright Side: Dan and Joel have provided us with the detail we need. For our part, we will continue our jaunt down the sunny side of the street, looking at only that part of the glass that has something in it. And let us begin by looking at more of the absurd, the ridiculous and the sublime events of the last week.
If there were ever any doubt that Congress is composed of lamebrains, Rep. Mark Takano is doing his best to dispel them. CNBC reports:"…his 32-hour Workweek Act to Congress, which, if passed, would officially reduce the standard definition of the workweek from 40 hours to 32 hours by amending the Fair Labor Standards Act. His proposal would mandate overtime pay for any work done after 32 hours, which would encourage business to either pay workers more for longer hours, or shorten their week and hire more people. It will “increase the happiness of humankind” says its sponsor."
What a hoot it must be to spend time in Congress. A laugh a minute. How on earth would Mr. Takano know what would increase human happiness? And if a shorter workweek would do the trick….why not a 25-hour week…or a 10-hour week…or a week with no work in it at all? How is it that Mr. Takano, who otherwise seems to be a person capable of tying his shoelaces and driving a car, can know that a 32-hour week would result in maximum happiness for humans on planet earth?
We don’t know. But how the members of Congress must chuckle! Like guards at a Gulag…they amuse each other by devising new ways to abuse their constituents. “Let’s see how the dopes back home will like this,” they say to each other, with a wink and an elbow. “How about we give $52 billion to US defense companies so the Ukrainians can fight for freedom? Hah…ha…ha…”
“No….we’ll say ‘fight for democracy.’ “Hah…ha…ha…”
“And let’s ban Tik Tok…and force American companies to buy their chips from the companies that give us campaign donations.” “Hey, wait….isn’t that unconstitutional?” "Who cares…?” “Hah…ha…ha…”
Yes, the US Congress is corrupt and incompetent, but what’s new? That glass sprang a leak years ago.
Another Tall Tale: Probably the biggest joke last week came from The New York Times newsroom. And here too, there’s good news: no one can take the Times seriously ever again. The Ol’ Gray Lady gave such a fairytale account of how the Nord Stream Pipeline got blown up, even she seemed embarrassed to report it. Reporters checked no facts, interviewed no sources, challenged no details; the paper simply passed along the government’s latest misinformation.
Joe Biden said he would blow up the pipeline. He had the means to do the crime. And Seymour Hersh – a seasoned, Pulitzer prize winning investigative reporter – revealed, in detail, how he did the deed. But the Times – acting as a propaganda agency for the Deep State – ignored Hersh’s very credible story and instead reported an unlikely yarn from unnamed ‘sources’ in the government about people who probably couldn’t do the job and probably don’t even exist. Supposedly funded by a “Ukrainian oligarch,” the terrorists allegedly rented a yacht, loaded on ultra-high-powered explosives and somehow escaped notice as they planted them on the pipeline in one of the most carefully guarded seas in the world.
We doubt that Joe Biden will ever fess up. And maybe his team will come up with a better way to put the blame on someone else. But for now, we suspect that some oligarch is going to have to take the rap so the Times won’t be forced to look any further. Stay tuned..."
Jim Kunstler, "Money Troubles"
"Money Troubles"
By Jim Kunstler
“As for the evil: It lurks in the interstices of our bureaucratic institutions, which, as they have grown in size and complexity since the nineteenth century, behave in ways that are increasingly impossible to understand and contrary to human flourishing.” - Eugyppius on Substack
"Money is all theoretical…until it’s not. Paper money is bad enough, as France learned under the tutelage of the rascal John Law in the early 1700s. The nation was broke, exhausted by foolish wars, and heaped under unbearable debt. Monsieur Law, a Scottish genius-wizard (the Jerry Lewis of political economy), landed in Paris, cast a spell on the regent Duc d’Orléans, set up a magic credit engine fueled by dreams of untold riches-to-come burgeoning out of the vast, new-found lands called Louisiana up the Mississippi River, and modern finance was born!
The stock-and-money schemes known as the Mississippi Bubble soon ruined France and put finance in such a bad odor that the word “banque” could not be used in polite society there for a century to come. Monetary inflation became a thing for the first time since Roman days - a much easier trick with printed paper banknotes than with silver coins - but the effect was the same: the evaporation of “wealth” (which is what money supposedly represents). At the height of the crisis, trading in gold was criminalized, though that was so easily worked-around due to sheer custom and habit that the Crown had to re-legalized it. The frenzy from start to finish lasted only a few years, but the nation was set on the path that would eventually lead to revolution. Law ended his days dolefully running card games in Venice.
Likewise, the creaking polity called the USA in our time, spawned many new incarnations of John Law as it transitioned from being “the arsenal of democracy” - you know, making real things - to a land of make-believe, where unicorns galloped over rainbows conjured by computer magic and utopian wishes of equity, diversity, and inclusion. The overhang of previously amassed wealth kept those dreams going long after we discontinued the rough and messy business of making stuff, and thereby generating real wealth. But now a klaxon blares, signaling the end of dream-time, and the nation wakes up in a ramshackle house with the floor giving way under the bed.
The rot was plain to see in the banking architecture built on US treasury paper (bills, notes, bonds) as rising interest rates undercut the price of all the debt paper issued previously at lower rates. And this was the collateral that banks generally held the depositor’s money in. So, when it became necessary to declare a problem with the balance sheet, and cash had to be raised to cover it, the treasury paper could only be sold at a loss, liabilities exceeded assets, word got out, depositors rushed to secure the money in their accounts, and that was all she wrote for yon bank, in this case, Silicon Valley Bank, the first to crumble.
Since banks today exist in a vast matrix of interconnected obligations - promises to pay this-and-that - fear grows that the rot from one bank, such as SVB, will infect many other banks that are no longer able to keep their promises about paying this-and-that, leading to a daisy-chain of things not getting paid. For an economy, that’s about the same as the blood ceasing to circulate in a body.
The practice in situations such as this (say, as in 2008-09) is for the governing authorities -who supposedly rule over the banking world like gods - to rush to rescue these outfits with “liquidity,” money (or representations of it) as required to re-balance things, or, maybe provide the impression of re-balancing until something else can be figured out. The Jupiter and Minerva of American banking, Jay Powell and Janet Yellen, were faced with just that sort of call for divine intervention over the weekend as fear seeped into every nook and crevice of the money world that wealth was flaring away in the long-feared-of conflagration out of the dumpster banking had become.
Sunday morning, Ms. Yellen told CBS News “bailouts, no way” but by the afternoon Mr. Powell cried “bailouts, way,” and they had to get their story straight. They offered up $25-billion to bail out depositors for a smoldering system that will arguably require a trillion dollars or more of liquidity to quench the spreading fires. One thing looks for sure: the interest rate hikes that Mr. Powell spoke of so confidently only days go just got stashed into his folder labeled “Fuggeddabowdit.” So, the campaign to control inflation must now yield to the urgent need to create a whole lot of money to spray over those fires.
You may have noticed that the value of your money has been slip-sliding away the past year or so. Peanut butter at five bucks a jar, and all. The situation at hand kind of guarantees that we’ll be seeing a whole ole lot more of that. And then the gods of money will have lost control of the interest rate console altogether. No more tweaking the broken knobs. More inflation will prompt US treasury paper holders to dump what they can while there’s still some value to retrieve. But the US has to issue more debt for all the bail-outs and theoretical buyers of new debt will perforce bid up the rates to keep up with inflation… and yet the US can’t possibly bear the burden of paying higher interest on its debt. Looks like the business model for running the USA is breaking down before our eyes.
Luckily, Cap’n “Joe Biden” is at the helm of this steaming garbage barge. His conference room full of geniuses is ready with the solution to our predicament: the long-mythologized Central Bank Digital Currency - a dream-come-true for would be tyrants… the Godzilla of unicorns whinnying atop the biggest rainbow of all: the promise of endless magic money for everybody, forever. All you have to do to get it is: surrender your decision-making power over your own life. The government will amalgamate your few remaining assets in a CBDC account, tell you exactly what to spend it on, and shut off your little card if you show any contrary impulses.
Well, they can try it. I doubt it will work. Instead, the government will melt down in its own rancid puddle of insolvency, the meta-grift will grind to an end, and it will be everyone for his/her/they self in the broke-down Palace of Chaos for a while… until things emergently reconstruct. But I get a little ahead of myself. It’s not even ten o’clock on Monday morning.
Oh, and then there’s Ukraine…"
"Putin Just Changed Everything With This Move And NATO Can’t Do Anything"
Full screen recommended.
"Putin Just Changed Everything With This
Move And NATO Can’t Do Anything"
"Scott Ritter explains Russian strategy in
Ukraine and why Russia is winning."
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