Robstown, Texas, USA. Thanks for stopping by!
So, we rise from the rubble...
Thursday, May 11, 2023
Gerald Celente, "Debt Default Panic, Banks Going Bust; The Worst Is Yet To Come"
Full screen recommended.
Strong language alert!
Gerald Celente, 5/11/23
"Debt Default Panic, Banks Going Bust.
The Worst Is Yet To Come"
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"Streets of Philadelphia, Kensington Ave Documentary"
Full screen recommended.
RangerRickTV, 5/11/23
"Streets of Philadelphia, Kensington Ave Documentary"
"Problems with drugs and crime on Kensington Ave, Philadelphia's most dangerous street. In Philadelphia as a whole, violent crime and drug abuse are major issues. The city has a higher rate of violent crime than the national average and other similarly sized metropolitan areas. The drug overdose rate in Philadelphia is also concerning. Between 2013 and 2015, the number of drug overdose deaths in the city increased by 50%, with more than twice as many deaths from overdoses as homicides. Kensington's high crime rate and drug abuse contribute significantly to Philadelphia's problems.
Because of the high number of drugs in the neighborhood, Kensington has the third-highest drug crime rate by neighborhood in Philadelphia, at 3.57. The opioid epidemic has played a significant role in this problem, as it has in much of the rest of the country. Opioid abuse has skyrocketed in the United States over the last two decades, and Philadelphia is no exception. In addition to having a high rate of drug overdose deaths, 80% of Philadelphia's overdose deaths involved opioids, and Kensington is a significant contributor to this figure. This Philadelphia neighborhood is said to have the largest open-air heroin market on the East Coast, with many neighbors migrating to the area for heroin and other opioids. With such a high concentration of drugs in Kensington, many state and local officials have focused on the neighborhood in an attempt to address Philadelphia's problem."
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A comment: Before you unthinkingly respond, "Oh, that could never happen here!", you'd better be aware that the economy is totally collapsing in every way, and it's doing it right now, and life as we knew it is already gone forever. This is only the beginning. You'd better pray to God it doesn't happen where YOU live...
Must View! "You Are Being Set Up"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly, PM 5/11/23 Bonus Post
"You Are Being Set Up"
We are getting warning after warning. We need to take this seriously. Jamie Dimon is stepping forward and telling us that they have set up a war room to work on the Banking and Market Collapse once an agree on the debt ceiling limit is not reached."
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Bill Bonner, "Our Response to Mr. Kennedy (cont.)"
"Our Response to Mr. Kennedy (cont.)"
Here's what happens when you leave interest
rates way too low for way too long...
by Bill Bonner
Dublin, Ireland - "Our story so far…Presidential candidate, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., wanted to know what we thought. “Go back and read our daily messages for the last 25 years,” we might have said. “And don’t miss our 5 books; you need to read those too.”
Instead, we prepared an ‘executive summary.’ In Part I, yesterday, we explained how the post-1971 dollar was cut loose from the real world of time and resources. Its gold backing was removed. This allowed the financial economy to race ahead of the real economy of goods and services.
Money is just a way of keeping track of who owes what to whom, like tickets in a parking garage. ‘Financialization’ is what happens when you add tickets; you go to get your car and find that someone else has driven away in it. It meant that a lot of people thought they had ‘wealth’ that didn’t really exist. Their stocks weren’t worth as much as they hoped. Their houses were over-priced. Their pensions were under-funded. Their government deficits piled up…waiting for a day of reckoning. Our chart showed GDP output practically flat, while “assets” increased 10 times.
So, let us pick up our letter to RFK,Jr. (we promised fewer than 1,000 words…alas, we ran over), where we left off:
Dear Robert,
The second major change to the financial system occurred in the late ‘80s when Alan Greenspan gave out his famous ‘Greenspan Put.’ Investors then knew that the game was rigged – in their favor. When they made money, they pocketed the gains. When they lost money, the losses were shared out – by lowering interest rates and inflating the currency – to the general population.
This was dramatically demonstrated in 2001-2004, 2007- 2016 and again in 2019-2022. Each time, the ‘market’ tried to reduce asset prices and debt, and the Fed stepped in with cheaper credit (and more debt). Remarkably, the Fed’s key lending rate remained under the inflation rate for the whole period 2008–2023 to today (excepting a few months in 2019).
In other words, instead of allowing the economy to correct mistakes and excesses, the Fed made them worse. It drove down interest rates, claiming – perhaps believing – that it was ‘stimulating’ the economy. Between 1999 and 2023, the Fed added some $8 trillion in new money. The federal government added some $28 trillion in deficits. This should have been more than enough ‘stimulus’ – enough to wake a dead man.
But if there is a success story, in which real growth was stimulated by fake money lent out at fake interest rates, it is absent from the historical record. Every instance of excessive money-printing – from ancient Rome in the time of Diocletian… to Zimbabwe, Venezuela and Argentina in our own time – shows the real fruit of ‘stimulus’ is bitter…even fatal. It leads to poverty and discontent, not prosperity.
Here’s Chart #3. It shows what happens when you leave interest rates way too low for way too long. You get a lot of debt.
Cause, Meet Effect: Absurdly-low interest rates enticed people to borrow. Debt grew proportionally. Federal debt is now 86 times higher than it was in 1971. Credit card debt nears $1 trillion. Student loans have surpassed $1.7 trillion. Total US debt is over $90 trillion. The federal government already owes $32 trillion and expects more $1 trillion-dollar deficits “as far as the eye can see.”
The effect of these two policy changes – the ‘flexible’ post-1971 dollar…and ultra-low interest rates – was exhilarating to the rich. But devastating to everyone else. A family in the top 1% now has 680 times as much wealth as one in the bottom 50%.
Trillions of dollars’ worth of easy money created an unnatural hot-house environment. People got used to 4% mortgages. Businesses got used to rolling over their debt at a 3% interest rate. The Federal government got used to borrowing at a negative real rate on its 10-year bonds. And speculators got used to ‘negative carry.’ At one point, they borrowed at the Fed’s low rates, then lent the money back to the government (by buying US Treasury bonds). The transaction was economically sterile and fruitless. But it was profitable. And the Fed’s ‘forward guidance’ removed the risk of a sudden shift in policy. But now, like a dense jungle canopy, exorbitant debt shades and stifles the eco-system beneath it
Then, in July 2020, the credit cycle hit bottom (the lowest yields in 500 years). Interest rates began to rise. And today, 10-year Treasury bond yields are 5 times higher than they were just two years ago. The correction that the Fed has postponed for more than three decades is upon us. The traditional, dreaded feedback loop has reasserted itself; the Fed can no longer stimulate the economy, not without causing consumer prices to rise.
Inflate or Die: None of this would have happened without the bumbling intervention of the Fed. Market-set interest rates would have risen a long time ago. Higher rates would have halted the build-up of debt, flattened the bubble in asset prices, and encouraged real capital formation.
In a better world, the Fed would be disbanded. After all, the idea that a group of graying lawyers and economists can set interest rates for a $24 trillion economy is pure fantasy. Neither theory nor experience supports it. As it is, the Fed faces a grim choice. Inflate or Die. Either it backs off and allows the bubble economy to die…with a crash on Wall Street, recession, bankruptcies, unemployment and all of the other nasty things needed to correct its own policy mistakes. Or, it protects the gains of the rich and the powerful by continuing to inflate the economy.
The inflation option postpones the reckoning…but it increases the pain. And it destroys the middle class. The poor get inflation-adjusted handouts. The rich have their assets, their hedges, and their hustles. But the middle classes sell their time by the hour. Prices go up. Real wages go down. Jobs disappear. And houses, where the middle classes keep their savings, become debt traps. As prices rise, families borrow heavily to buy them. Then, they must refinance… at higher and higher rates.
An honest democracy cannot exist without a strong, independent middle class. The poor are easily distracted with circuses and bribed with bread. The rich may still call themselves ‘capitalists,’ but they become ‘crony capitalists’…manipulating the masses and the financial system to extract as much fast, easy cash as possible.
So, it is not just the financial system that is in danger. It’s the whole kit and kaboodle of US society. Money affects everything. Our guess is that when the going gets tough the deciders will choose the worst option – inflation. Politically, it is the smoother road…for a while. But maybe you can be the decider who will change that. Good luck,"
"It'll Do..."
Deputy Wendell: "It's a mess, ain't it, sheriff?"
Sheriff Bell: "If it ain't, it'll do till the mess gets here."
- "No Country For Old Men"
"Don't Let Panic Set In"
Dan, I Allegedly 5/11/23
"Don't Let Panic Set In"
"Today we sit down with Bob Kudla and cover everything in the economy. We need to stay calm during these tough economic times. Things are more challenging now than ever."
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"Frustrating Trip To Kroger! Groceries Are Becoming Unaffordable!"
Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, 5/11/23
"Frustrating Trip To Kroger!
Groceries Are Becoming Unaffordable!"
"In today's vlog we are at Kroger, and are noticing some major price increases on groceries! This is not good as stores are already charging extremely high prices on most items!"
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Wednesday, May 10, 2023
"UK's Massive WW3 Escalation; F-22s Sent To Front; Nuclear Evacuation In Progress"
Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 5/10/23
"UK's Massive WW3 Escalation; F-22s Sent To Front;
Nuclear Evacuation In Progress"
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"Adapting To A Collapsing Economy, You Could Lose Everything; The System Is Falling"
Jeremiah Babe, 5/10/23
"Adapting To A Collapsing Economy,
You Could Lose Everything; The System Is Falling"
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"Head of Russia's Space Agency Drops Bombshell Claim: Did America Fake the Moon Landing?"
Full screen recommended.
Redacted, 5/10/23
"Head of Russia's Space Agency Drops Bombshell Claim:
Did America Fake the Moon Landing?"
"Did the U.S. really land on the moon? A former astronaut throws some serious shade on that possibility and he's got some compelling evidence."
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"Burger King Reports Large-Scale Shutdowns As Bankruptcies Hits America's Biggest Restaurant Chains"
Full screen recommended.
"Burger King Reports Large-Scale Shutdowns As
Bankruptcies Hits America's Biggest Restaurant Chains"
By Epic Economist
"The second-largest fast-food chain in the U.S. is being ravaged by the ongoing economic downturn. Burger King is reporting that mass shutdowns are about to occur as foot traffic dramatically declines, sales disappoint, and several franchises file for bankruptcy. An alarming number of restaurants will be closed by the end of 2023, executives say. The company is dealing with increasingly tough competition in the marketplace from the likes of McDonald’s and Chipotle. Burger King also faces pressure from more upmarket chains including Five Guys and Shake Shack. Its U.S. operations have been struggling with profitability for years, and now many Americans will be forced to say goodbye to their local Burger King.
Since 2019, the company has been shuttering around 130 locations per year, with numbers varying due to economic reasons. Before the pandemic started, the U.S. had over 7,300 Burger King restaurants. Now, with 500 fewer stores, the chain is announcing what seems to be the biggest wave of closings it ever reported as its franchises fall into bankruptcy and the company acts to prevent a potential financial collapse. During an earnings call last week, the CEO of Restaurant Brands International Inc., the parent company of Burger King, stated that he plans to close 400 underperforming stores this year to streamline the fast-food brand. "Historically, we've closed about a hundred units at Burger King US," CEO Joshua Kobza said in a Q1 earnings call on last Tuesday. The expected closures this year will be well above the historical average. "Foot traffic was negative this quarter," Kboza noted.
Analysts told DailyMail.com that Burger King has been suffering with lagging sales in 90% of U.S. states, trailing behind Wendy's and its main rival, McDonald's. They said that the chain was at risk of entering into a 'death spiral' if it failed to play catch-up with its rivals. In the first three months, three Burger King franchisees have declared bankruptcy, including Illinois-based Toms King, Michigan-based EYM King, and Utah-based Meridian Restaurants Unlimited. At the same time, the company acknowledged that its revitalization would still result in more franchisees filing for bankruptcy or selling their business to other operators.
Industry experts note that the restaurant chain’s troubles significantly deteriorated since the pandemic. The firm was badly positioned when the health crisis hit compared to its rivals. Its digital platform was behind, so the brand scrambled to keep up with the demand for delivery when people could not visit restaurants in person.
The chain also suffered from a series of ill-fated menu revamps - including the Impossible Burger. Launched in 2016, executives said it was a meat-free alternative that couldn’t be found anywhere else in the fast food industry. But they faced a huge backlash when they admitted it would be cooked on the same equipment used for beef and chicken. Burger King must conduct this new business strategy very carefully because the chances it may turn out to be a failure are rising. Not even the biggest restaurant chains in America will be immune to the challenges that are coming for us. And it would be a shame to see this popular brand fading in the background."
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"A Look to the Heavens"
"Sprawling emission nebulae IC 1396 and Sh2-129 mix glowing interstellar gas and dark dust clouds in this 10 degree wide field of view toward the northern constellation Cepheus the King. Energized by its bluish central star IC 1396 (left) is hundreds of light-years across and some 3,000 light-years distant.
"Someday..."
"Someday stars will wind down or blow up. Someday death will cover us all like the water of a lake and perhaps nothing will ever come to the surface to show that we were ever there. But we WERE there, and during the time we lived, we were alive. That's the truth - what is, what was, what will be - not what could be, what should have been, what never can be."
- Orson Scott Card
"If You Do Not Know..."
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"First of all, although men have a common destiny, each individual also has to work out his own personal salvation for himself in fear and trembling. We can help one another to find the meaning of life no doubt. But in the last analysis, the individual person is responsible for living his own life and for "finding himself." If he persists in shifting his responsibility to somebody else, he fails to find out the meaning of his own existence. You cannot tell me who I am and I cannot tell you who you are. If you do not know your own identity, who is going to identify you?"
- Thomas Merton
The Poet: Mary Oliver, "October"
“October”
"There’s this shape, black as the entrance to a cave.
A longing wells up in its throat
like a blossom
as it breathes slowly.
What does the world
mean to you if you can’t trust it
to go on shining when you’re
not there? and there’s
a tree, long-fallen; once
the bees flew to it, like a procession
of messengers, and filled it
with honey.
I said to the chickadee, singing his heart out in the
green pine tree:
little dazzler
little song,
little mouthful.
The shape climbs up out of the curled grass. It
grunts into view. There is no measure
for the confidence at the bottom of its eyes -
there is no telling
the suppleness of its shoulders as it turns
and yawns.
Near the fallen tree
something - a leaf snapped loose
from the branch and fluttering down - tries to pull me
into its trap of attention.
It pulls me
into its trap of attention,
And when I turn again, the bear is gone.
Look, hasn’t my body already felt
like the body of a flower?
Look, I want to love this world
as thought it’s the last chance I’m ever going to get
to be alive
and know it.
Sometimes in late summer I won’t touch anything,
not the flowers, not the blackberries
brimming in the thickets; I won’t drink
from the pond; I won’t name the birds or the trees;
I won’t whisper my own name.
One morning
the fox came down the hill, glittering and confident,
and didn’t see me - and I thought:
so this is the world.
I’m not in it.
It is beautiful."
- Mary Oliver
"The Growing Wave of Corporations Committing Suicide"
"The Growing Wave of Corporations Committing Suicide"
by International Man
"International Man: Recently, several large corporations have made self-destructive moves. A prominent example is the Bud Light marketing fiasco which saw year-over-year sales plummet 17%. As a result, Bud Light’s parent company lost nearly $5 billion in market cap around the same time. It should have been obvious that Bud Light’s marketing program featuring a trans activist wouldn’t go over well with its customers. Yet, they went ahead anyways. What is your take on this?
Doug Casey: It’s shocking that a tiny percentage of the population has such an outsize influence in all areas of life. LGBTQ+ wield power not just in academia and the media but in business and corporations.
What’s amazing is not only the tiny number of people LGB-whatever represents but the fact that many or most of them are highly neurotic. Some of them appear to be psychotic. They have severe psychological problems, yet they’re being held up as models to influence other people. The fact that the suits who run major corporations go along with the ridiculous charade proves that not only do they have extremely bad judgment, but they’re despicable cowards.
The founders of great corporations wouldn’t have put up with this bizarre nonsense. They were entrepreneurs with ethics and courage. But corporate suits are just managers who don’t want to jeopardize their gigantic salaries and huge stock options by running counter to whatever seems to be the fashionable meme of the month. Way too many top managers are beneficiaries of the Peter Principle - or just competent self-promoters.
And it’s not just the corporations; the US military has fallen into this psychological pit as well, kowtowing to these insane activists. You have to love the US Navy’s campaign to recruit gay sailors. It’s as if they’ve chucked "Anchors Aweigh "for the Village People’s "In the Navy."
It’s further proof that the country is dividing in many ways. And as I’ve referred to in the past, there’s some indication that an actual civil war is brewing in the United States.
International Man: Likewise, Fox News recently fired Tucker Carlson, its most-watched show. Not surprisingly, Fox News’ ratings have tanked since Tucker left. What do you make of this?
Doug Casey: I’ve been asking myself why they dropped him. Was it from antagonism to what he’s saying? Or was it just stupidity? Or could it have seemed like good business sense at the time since Tucker’s candor had lost all his major corporate sponsors?
Our friend David Stockman, in his recent editorial (link), points out that even though Tucker was the most watched show of its type on TV, all of his big corporate advertisers, a couple dozen of them, dropped him because he was politically incorrect. Of course, a shortsighted corporate suit could argue that even though he had giant ratings, the show itself then wasn’t directly profitable.
But as it turned out, most of Fox’s viewership was hanging on Tucker’s coattails. Why else would someone listen to the simultaneously vapid and strident Sean Hannity or the well-intentioned but painfully low-IQ Jesse Watters? Fox betrayed its core audience, making itself the media version of Bud Light.
What’s the matter with these corporations that they throw away whole demographics? Even if the lack of advertising hurt the economics of Tucker’s show, they should have realized that what amounted to a yellow-livered betrayal could destroy their whole network by antagonizing their viewers, who now want to punish them.
Maybe Tucker can’t live on My Pillow ads alone, but it seems likely he’ll get a new show, taking all Fox’s viewers with him. Unfortunately, he’s the only one on television who’s saying the things he’s saying, which is really shameful because the things that he’s saying are simply common sense - which is to say AntiWoke.
International Man: In another example of the trend, Disney has seen its sales drop after promoting cultural themes in its movies that many find distasteful. The company has also taken it upon itself to wade into divisive cultural issues. Again, it should have been obvious that these moves would not help the business. What is really going on here?
Doug Casey: It’s not just Disney. Interestingly, blacks make up only 13% of the US population. But if you look at the ads on TV, all of them, almost without exception, feature black people and very often a black and white couple, which is very unusual in real life. There’s nothing wrong with interracial marriage, and it’s nobody’s business but the people involved. Promoting the concept seems like Woke propaganda.
Ads that you see everywhere present a false picture of reality. And movies conflict with reality and are becoming ahistorical. For example, casting a black woman to play Ann Boleyn in a recent TV series or a black woman to play Cleopatra - which Netflix did. Or the popular play about Alexander Hamilton, which makes a lot of people think he was black.
When you make a movie, a historical movie, you want it to be as historically accurate as possible. That means that if characters are Chinese, you want to use Chinese people. If they’re black, you want to use black people. If they’re white, you want to use white people. Instead, they’re promiscuously casting blacks in all kinds of roles where the person wasn’t black. Does that mean a white person could or should play Malcolm X or Shaka Zulu?
It’s part of an ideological agenda that’s acting to destroy the current culture and replace it with something else. I’m not sure what that something else actually is, but it has heavy elements of Marxism, racism, and collectivism. But destroying a culture - especially Western Civ, which is responsible for almost everything that’s valuable and constructive around us - is much more vicious than destroying a country’s financial markets or even its economy. That’s what they’re doing, intentionally or not. In the process, they seem to be trying to foment real antagonism between races, often disguised as trying to promote harmony.
International Man: Bud Light, Disney, and Fox News are prominent examples of this trend, but by no means the only ones. Alleged profit-driven corporations are choosing to sabotage their earnings to make ideological statements. What is causing this trend, and where is it headed?
Doug Casey: It’s said that corporations put profits above all. But people run corporations, and humans have a tendency to do things that they consider to be morally right. Stalin, Mao, and Hitler all thought what they were doing was morally correct. Moral righteousness motivates people much more than money does.
Since the population has been corrupted by numerous mutually reinforcing negative trends over the last three generations, it’s going to be hard to turn this trend around. Certainly not unless you not only reform current intellectual notions but the current notions of morality and what’s right and wrong.
I’m not a church-going person, but previous ideas of what was morally right and wrong were handed down to Americans by their religion, Christianity. That’s changed now. The new religion is Greenism and Wokeism. Those things are now setting the moral tenor of society. This trend is in motion and still accelerating."
'Life Has No Victims..."
“Life has no victims. There are no victims in this life. No one has the right to point fingers at his/her past and blame it for what he/she is today. We do not have the right to point our finger at someone else and blame that person for how we treat others, today. Don’t hide in the corner, pointing fingers at your past. Don’t sit under the table, talking about someone who has hurt you. Instead, stand up and face your past! Face your fears! Face your pain! And stomach it all! You may have to do so kicking and screaming and throwing fits and crying – but by all means – face it! This life makes no room for cowards.”
- C. Joybell C.
'They Don't Always Do That..."
"When people pile up debts they will find difficult and perhaps even impossible to repay, they are saying several things at once. They are obviously saying that they want more than they can immediately afford. They are saying, less obviously, that their present wants are so important that, to satisfy them, it is worth some future difficulty. But in making that bargain they are implying that when the future difficulty arrives, they’ll figure it out. They don’t always do that.”
– Michael Lewis, “Boomerang”
Gerald Celente, Trends Journal 5/10/23
Gerald Celente, Trends Journal 5/10/23
"Judge Andrew Napolitano: Future Of US Debt:
You Pay The Bill... Trillions To Infinity"
"The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present facts and truth over fear and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for what’s next in these increasingly turbulent times."
Contents here:
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"They Hit the Pause Button and the Music Stopped" (Excerpt)
"They Hit the Pause Button and the Music Stopped"
by Jeffrey Tucker
Excerpt: "In the great search for metaphors to justify the largest-scale violations of human rights in our lifetimes, the disease managers finally hit on the term “pause button.” We were merely pressing it for a while to get our bearings, un-overload hospitals, gather personal protective equipment, flatten the curve, and generally figure out what to do in the presence of a new virus. They had to pause you so that they could figure it out.
Here is a typical headline, this one from the Los Angeles Times: "San Diego State Hits pause Button as COVID-19 Cases Grow." We all know what a pause button is in real life. The music is playing and then it is not. But you can press the button again and the music will play. Society, then, in all its unfathomable complexity, was rendered as a song on Spotify playing on a machine over which our masters in public health held the controls. It was like a smartphone: push and release. No big deal. Well, it did turn out as a pause, not for 15 days, or even 30, but all the way for three years. The pause button jammed.
The pause button pertained not just to earth but heaven too. Three years ago, during Lent, Christians could not go to their parishes to confess their sins as they had for 2,000 years in preparation for Easter. The most important Eucharistic services of the year – during which time the faithful receive grace from a host with real presence of God – were flat-out canceled, as were the other sacraments. One supposes that they assume God too is under their control.
Incredibly, the complaints were few, particularly from the clergy who chose compliance over faith. Those who shut their doors for one or even two years are now paying a heavy price for the decision. The leadership essentially announced that they were not essential. Parishioners and congregations decided to take them at their word.
But it wasn’t just worship services. It was everything. And by everything we can include supply chains, industrial manufacturing, artistic creativity, seasonal changes in fashion, and the timeline of history itself. Commercial life came to a standstill. Unless you wanted liquor or weed – all the better to calm down a locked-down population – you were pretty much out of luck."
Full article here:
Gregory Mannarino, "Shocker! Inflation Continues To Rise With No End In Sight!"
Gregory Mannarino, AM 5/10/23
"Shocker! Inflation Continues To Rise With No End In Sight!"
Comments here:
"Our Response to Mr. Kennedy"
"Our Response to Mr. Kennedy"
The policy change that enabled the decline
of America’s Main Street economy...
by Bill Bonner and Joel Bowman
Dublin, Ireland - "Recall from yesterday…we got a call from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who is running for president. He is curious, a rare quality for a politician. He wanted to know – what do we think? Why do we think that way? Herewith, we try to condense 25 years’ of on-the-go observations and guesswork into a carry-on bag.
Dear Robert,
Three little charts are all you need. It took us 25 years to shuck off the nonsense and delusions of contemporary macro economics. Here, in less than 1,000 words, is the ‘executive summary.’
You lament, as we do, the decline of America’s decent, middle class Republic. Basically, we’re talking about the kind of country we had in the ‘50s and early ‘60s. It was not perfect by any means, but by almost all measures the US was on top of the world…and pulling ahead. Real wages were rising, inflation was low, and consumers bought ‘Made in America’ not because it was a political slogan, but because American-made goods were the cheapest and best on the market.
It seemed inevitable, back then, that we would all be rich, happy, free and healthy by now. But something went wrong. Growth rates in the 21st century are less than half those of the 50s, 60s, and 70s. Real wages have been going down for the last 2 years and, measured correctly, the typical working stiff is worse off today than he was 50 years ago. Today, it takes him twice as long to buy an average car or an average house.
It would be reckless to try to pin the blame on a single person or a single thing. And many things are beyond our human control. But there was one major policy change that enabled the decline of America’s Main Street economy.
First, between 1968 and 1971, gold was removed from the US currency. For the first time, dollars could multiply much faster than the things they could buy. Second, in the 1990s, the Fed began manipulating interest rates to boost asset prices. These two moves destroyed America’s prosperity.
Gold – or something like it – is essential to a capitalist economy. It links our ‘money’ to the real world of time, work, and resources. Before 1971, if you wanted more money, you had to earn it by producing more goods or services (GDP). Then, you had ‘capital’ that you could invest to build new shops and factories to produce even more goods and services. That was how the US became the richest nation on earth.
But the post-1971 dollar led to a new form of wealth – financial wealth. It was capitalism without real capital. Instead, it was based on credit provided by the Fed and the banks. (Note: when you borrow from a bank, it doesn’t take the money out of its vault. It just creates the money, as credit, in an electronic ledger entry. The more you borrow, the more debt…and the more the ‘money supply’ goes up too.)
Fatal Financialization: This is what became known as the “financialization” of the economy. People found that money could be made without adding to goods and services. Investing, speculating, leverage, Mergers and Acquisitions, IPOs, buybacks – all were ways to get rich, without adding a penny to the world’s real wealth. Emblematic of this era was Jack Welch. As chairman of GE, Welch turned the company – an old, industrial powerhouse – into a new financial wunderkind. He bought one new company every week, putting GE deeper and deeper into debt. Welch himself became famous for his hard-driving success. By 2000, GE stock was over $350 a share. And by 2005, Welch’s book, “Winning,” was, of course, a bestseller.
Deals, deals, deals…Wall Street brokered the deals and earned its cut. But what real wealth was added? It was hard to say. Here, we see what happened. The real economy stumbled along, while the ‘financial economy’ – powered by trillions of new dollars that no one ever earned or saved – soared.
We see here, in Chart #1, the two economies parting company:
Penthouses and Outhouses: ‘Financial wealth’ is very different from real wealth. Real wealth must be earned. Until the 1980s, both rich and poor earned money and gained ground equally. Then, the new financial system tilted the playing field in favor of the elite. Those with good connections, good credit, business school diplomas, brokerage accounts, and business-class seats benefited most. The rich got much richer…while real wages stagnated. Here’s Chart #2.
More and more, money was made by manipulating credit, not by learning a trade or building a business. “We think; they sweat” was the delusional motto. Things of real value could be made cheaper and better by the Chinese, Koreans, Mexicans or Japanese. Let them do the hard work! All Americans had to do was to borrow the money to buy their products. It worked well, for a while. Dollars were sent overseas to purchase real goods and services. Then, rather than come back to the US, where they would have driven up domestic prices, they were often locked away overseas as ‘reserves.’
Ambitious mommas wanted their sons to get in on it; they should grow to be hedge fund managers on Wall Street, not engineers in Detroit. But while the automotive engineer helped produce a better, safer car…what did financial engineering produce? To be continued…with our third chart…and more on why the drift to the downside cannot be easily corrected…"
Joel’s Note: "Another way to think about the hollowing out of the American middle class over the past half century is through the cracked lens of inflation. As Bill notes above, the dollar was finally severed from its gold backing in 1971. Since then, it’s been off to the races for the world’s de facto reserve currency…
Consumer price inflation averaged 4.38% in 1971 (going by the old methodology, no longer in use). This morning’s consumer price inflation (CPI) report from the Department of Labor shows inflation at 4.9%, up 0.4% for the month. The Fed’s preferred “core” measure (which excludes unnecessary items like food and energy) was up 5.5% for the year.
During the intervening 52 years, the greenback has lost an average of nearly 4% of its value per year (going by the official numbers). What does that mean, in terms of actual purchasing power – at the pump, the grocery store, the diner – for the average American worker?
For one thing, it takes about $7.45 in “today’s money” (such as it is) to purchase the same amount of goods and services as a single dollar would have bought you back in 1971. That is to say, one 2023 dollar is worth less than one-seventh of its 1971 counterpart, or about 13% of its quinquagenarian ancestor. Here’s a look at what happened to $10,000 over the same time period.
Looked at from the other direction, prices have gone through the roof…
What you see there is a cumulative price increase of over 645%. Higher and higher everyday prices: That’s your government’s promise to you."
"Maybe It Was One Too Many"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly 5/10/23
"Maybe It Was One Too Many"
"Maybe the Fed should not have raised interest rates.
What if this last time was just too much damage for the economy?"
Comments here:
"Strange Prices At Big Lots! This Is Crazy!"
Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, 5/10/23
"Strange Prices At Big Lots! This Is Crazy!"
"In today's vlog we are at Big Lots, and are noticing some strange 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:
Tuesday, May 9, 2023
Gerald Celente, Trends Journal, 5/9/23
Full screen recommended.
Strong language alert!
Gerald Celente, Trends Journal, 5/9/23
"Drone Strike On Kremlin OK;
Drone Strike On White House - America Goes To War"
"Imagine for a moment if a drone hit the White House, there would be an immediate aerial attack on the suspected perpetrator and the U.S. would be at war. There would be “Shock & Awe 2.0.”
Comments here:
"I Have Never Seen Things This Bad And It's Getting Worse; Biggest Bubble In History About To Burst"
abe, 5/9/23
"I Have Never Seen Things This Bad And It's Getting Worse;
Biggest Bubble In History About To Burst"
Comments here:
"Best Buy Will Probably Disappear Soon As Perfect Storm For Bankruptcies Hits Major Retailers"
Full screen recommended.
"Best Buy Will Probably Disappear Soon As
Perfect Storm For Bankruptcies Hits Major Retailers"
By Epic Economist
"Long gone are the days when Best Buy ruled as the top electronics retailer in the U.S. The retail giant is not only losing ground on the market – in March, it reported a 45% decline in its annual net income from 2022, while domestic revenue fell by $13.5 billion – but after reports of mass store closings and plunging consumer demand, it looks like the company is hanging by a thread. What went wrong? A lot, according to retail experts. The chain’s business model, internal operations, and financial health are crumbling, but tracking down Best Buy's biggest failure requires a much deeper look at the way the company conducts its business.
For the longest time, shoppers have been reporting customer service failures at the retailer’s stores. They have been taking to social media to rant about bad experiences with pushy or unhelpful employees, not to mention the inefficiency of the company’s delivery service.
On top of that, experts at RetailCustomerExperience.com highlight that the electronics retailer lacks one of the most important aspects of its business: innovation. It isn’t offering anything different from what other bigger market players do, failing to differentiate itself in this tough market. Meanwhile, operational costs continue to pile up. Best Buy expanded rapidly in the '90s by purchasing smaller chains and transforming them into its big-box format, a strategy that seemed successful — until it wasn’t. "The problem with the creation of the big stores is that Best Buy is now saddled with the costs of that vast square footage," Chen added. And Best Buy didn’t consider the long-term outlook. "They did not realize how fast disruptive forces would turn their stores into liabilities instead of assets," he continued.
Now, the chain is starting to retreat from physical retail as it tries to weather the storm. After announcing a large number of store closings in April, a few days ago it just revealed plans to shut down another 70 locations this year. Financial analyst James Zeoli revealed that the company's chief executive officer, Corie Barry, said during a March 1 earnings call that hundreds of locations were candidates for closure this year. "Although this occurred pretty abruptly, it's not a surprise," Zeoli said.
The troubles of the electronics store chain remember a situation described in Ernest Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises.” One character asks another how he went bankrupt. “Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly,” he said. Now it feels like Best Buy is doing the same, just as many big box retailers have done in the last decade.
First comes the financial imbalances, poorly managed by executives and further exacerbated by stock market volatility, then the economic scenario dramatically changes and sales growth collapses. At the same time, consumers discover new exciting retailers that provide what the company is not providing. The financial collapse comes later. But if history is any guide, the second part, once it starts, will be quick.
As with many large retailers unable to cope with innovation and new consumer expectations, the company will continue to sputter on fumes, slowing down bit by bit until one day it just stops moving."
Comments here:
"A Look to the Heavens"
“What makes this spiral galaxy so long? Measuring over 700,000 light years across from top to bottom, NGC 6872, also known as the Condor galaxy, is one of the most elongated barred spiral galaxies known.
The galaxy's protracted shape likely results from its continuing collision with the smaller galaxy IC 4970, visible just above center. Of particular interest is NGC 6872's spiral arm on the upper left, as pictured here, which exhibits an unusually high amount of blue star forming regions. The light we see today left these colliding giants before the days of the dinosaurs, about 300 million years ago. NGC 6872 is visible with a small telescope toward the constellation of the Peacock (Pavo).”
The Poet: Mary Oliver, "What I Have Learned So Far"
"What I Have Learned So Far"
"Meditation is old and honorable, so why should I
not sit, every morning of my life, on the hillside,
looking into the shining world? Because, properly
attended to, delight, as well as havoc, is suggestion.
Can one be passionate about the just, the
ideal, the sublime, and the holy, and yet commit
to no labor in its cause? I don't think so.
All summations have a beginning, all effect has a
story, all kindness begins with the sown seed.
Thought buds toward radiance. The gospel of
light is the crossroads of- indolence, or action.
Be ignited, or be gone."
~ Mary Oliver
"What Keeps You Going..."
"It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succor of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till."
- J.R.R. Tolkien, "The Lord of the Rings "
o
Sam: "It's like in the great stories Mr. Frodo, the ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn't want to know the end because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end it's only a passing thing, this shadow, even darkness must pass. A new day will come, and when the sun shines it'll shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you, that meant something even if you were too small to understand why. But I think Mr. Frodo, I do understand, I know now folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going because they were holding on to something.
Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam?
Sam: That there's some good in the world, Mr. Frodo, and it's worth fighting for."
- Samwise Gamgee, "The Lord of the Rings"
o
"What keeps you going isn't some fine destination but just the road you're on, and the fact that you know how to drive. You keep your eyes open, you see this damned-to-hell world you got born into, and you ask yourself, 'What life can I live that will let me breathe in and out and love somebody or something and not run off screaming into the woods?'"
- Barbara Kingsolver
o
“For this is what we do. Put one foot forward and then the other. Lift our eyes to the snarl and smile of the world once more. Think. Act. Feel. Add our little consequence to the tides of good and evil that flood and drain the world. Drag our shadowed crosses into the hope of another night. Push our brave hearts into the promise of a new day. With love: the passionate search for truth other than our own. With longing: the pure, ineffable yearning to be saved. For so long as fate keeps waiting, we live on. God help us. God forgive us. We live on.”
- Gregory David Roberts, “Shantaram”
"Life Is Hard?"
"Life is hard? True - but let's love it anyhow,
though it breaks every bone in our bodies."
- Edward Abbey
"When I hear somebody sigh, "Life is hard,"
I am always tempted to ask, "Compared to what?"
- Sydney Harris
"If Liberty Means Anything At All..."
"If you want to tell people the truth, make
them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you."
- Oscar Wilde
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