Full screen recommended. Beautiful!
2002, "Courting the Moon"
"A Mayan legend says that the hummingbird is actually the sun
in disguise, and he is trying to court a beautiful woman, who is the moon."
So, we rise from the rubble...
Friday, May 12, 2023
"A Look to the Heavens"
“What will become of these galaxies? Spiral galaxies NGC 5426 and NGC 5427 are passing dangerously close to each other, but each is likely to survive this collision. Typically when galaxies collide, a large galaxy eats a much smaller galaxy. In this case, however, the two galaxies are quite similar, each being a sprawling spiral with expansive arms and a compact core. As the galaxies advance over the next tens of millions of years, their component stars are unlikely to collide, although new stars will form in the bunching of gas caused by gravitational tides.
Close inspection of the above image taken by the 8-meter Gemini-South Telescope in Chile shows a bridge of material momentarily connecting the two giants. Known collectively as Arp 271, the interacting pair spans about 130,000 light years and lies about 90 million light-years away toward the constellation of Virgo. Recent predictions hold that our Milky Way Galaxy will undergo a similar collision with the neighboring Andromeda Galaxy in a few billion years.”
"Fools And Knaves..."
“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
“There are more fools than knaves in the world,
else the knaves would not have enough to live upon.”
- Samuel Butler
"Ukraine SitRep: Delayed Counteroffensive, Russian Defense Lines, Weapon Efficiency" (Excerpt)
"Ukraine SitRep: Delayed Counteroffensive,
Russian Defense Lines, Weapon Efficiency"
by Moon of Alabama
Excerpt: "Two weeks ago the Biden administration had recognized that the announced Ukrainian ‘counteroffensive’ will fail to make much progress. The operation has still not started and Zelensky has moved its launch further into the future: "Speaking at his headquarters in Kyiv, President Zelensky described combat brigades, some of which were trained by Nato countries, as being “ready” but said the army still needed “some things”, including armored vehicles that were “arriving in batches”.”With [what we already have] we can go forward, and, I think, be successful,” he said in an interview for public service broadcasters who are members of Eurovision News, like the BBC. “But we’d lose a lot of people. I think that’s unacceptable. So we need to wait. We still need a bit more time.”
Time will not prevent that any counteroffensive will lead to high casualty rates. In fact, waiting longer means more attacks on the troops in their current positions. Any detected agglomeration of forces or material is already coming under long range Russian missile fire.
As the counteroffensive is destined to fail the Biden administration is out to move the goal posts. In Foreign Affairs two of its MIC propagandists, Michael Kofman and Rob Lee, demand to prepare for a much longer war: "Policymakers, however, have placed undue emphasis on the upcoming offensive without providing sufficient consideration of what will come afterward and whether Ukraine is well positioned for the next phase. It is critical that Ukraine’s Western partners develop a long-term theory of victory for Ukraine, since even in the best-case scenario, this upcoming offensive is unlikely to end the conflict. Indeed, what follows this operation could be another period of indeterminate fighting and attrition, but with reduced ammunition deliveries to Ukraine. This is already a long war, and it is likely to become protracted. History is an imperfect guide, but it suggests wars that endure for more than a year are likely to go on for at least several more and are exceedingly difficult to end. A Western theory of success must therefore prevent a situation in which the war drags on, but where Western countries are unable to provide Ukraine with a decisive advantage."
The delusion is strong in that assessment. A ‘theory of victory’ or ‘success’ is just that – a theory. Ukraine does not have the personnel to sustain a longer war. Nor does the ‘west’ have any spare weapons that could give the Ukraine a ‘decisive advantage’. Still the cue was picked up Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmitro Kuleba (machine translation): "If Ukraine does not succeed in its counteroffensive against the aggressor country Russia, it will prepare for the next one.This was stated by Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in an interview with Bild published on May 10. He urged “not to consider this counteroffensive as the last one” – “because we do not know what will come of it.”
Kuleba noted that if Ukraine succeeds in its counteroffensive against Russia in liberating its territories, “in the end you will say: “Yes, it was the last one,” but if not, then you need to prepare for the next counteroffensive.” Kuleba is already asking for weapons for the next ‘counteroffensive’ to be launched after the currently announced one fails.
Dreizin published an alleged ‘battle plan’ for a Ukrainian ‘counteroffensive’ in the Zaporozhia front:
(1) Break through the Russian forward defense along the line Nesterianka-Novosyolovka (6km and 19km southeast of Orekhov, respectively) into the defense depth of Guards battalions in the Polozhsk-Orekhov sector, utilizing, in the first echelon, the 47th and 65th Separate Mechanized Brigades, 9th Army Corps (total of 2 tank and 7 infantry battalions—8300 men with up to 60 tanks, up to 200 other armored fighting vehicles, up to 110 field pieces and mortars, 12 MLRS, up to 100 motor rafts.) Breakthrough of the contact line will be in the order of the 65th which is already on the line, then the 47th. Neighboring units including the 128th Separate Mountain Assault Brigade will carry the task of harrying neighboring Russian units so as to prevent reinforcement of Russian forces at the main axis of advance.
(2) Subsequently, deploy the main forces. The main blow is to be from the vicinity of Orekhov, in the direction of Tokmak, ultimately towards Melitopol’. From the point of strategic value the chosen target is the right one. However, it is also the one where the Russian military has prepared its strongest defense lines."
To crack such a nut without air support and without significant artillery advantage is nearly impossible. It is why I think that the Zaporozhia region may not be the real target of the counteroffensive. All the talk about it may well be a diversion. The least prepared front is in the area south of Kherson."
Full article is here:
Hat tip to The Burning Platform for this material.
You and I and all of us have paid at least $120 billion
for this horror, might as well watch the show...
The Poet: William Stafford, "You Reading This, Be Ready"
"You Reading This, Be Ready"
"Starting here, what do you want to remember?
How sunlight creeps along a shining floor?
What scent of old wood hovers, what softened
sound from outside fills the air?
Will you ever bring a better gift for the world
than the breathing respect that you carry
wherever you go right now? Are you waiting
for time to show you some better thoughts?
When you turn around, starting here, lift this
new glimpse that you found; carry into evening
all that you want from this day. This interval you spent
reading or hearing this, keep it for life.
What can anyone give you greater than now,
starting here, right in this room, when you turn around?"
- William Stafford
"Don't Wonder..."
"Don't wonder why people go crazy. Wonder why they don't.
In the face of what we can lose in a day, in an instant,
wonder what the hell it is that makes us hold it together."
- "Grey's Anatomy"
Bill Bonner, "Debt Ceiling 81"
"Debt Ceiling 81"
A horror movie with the most predictable ending yet...
By Bill Bonner
"The fiscal recklessness of the last decade has
been like watching a horror movie unfold."
~ Stanley Druckenmiller
Youghal, Ireland - "The debt ceiling…the debt ceiling…the debt ceiling…The horror movie continues with ‘Debt Ceiling 81.’ A sequel…to a sequel…to a sequel…etc. And, this time, poor Janet Yellen is the leading lady. CNBC: "The notion of defaulting on our debt is something that would so badly undermine the U.S. and global economy that I think it should be regarded by everyone as unthinkable," she told reporters. "America should never default."
Unthinkable? We have no problem thinking about it. And guess what. We think it would be a step in the right direction. Clearly, we are in a minority…perhaps a minority of one.
Reuters: "IMF says US default would have 'very serious repercussions' on global economy."
CNBC: "It is 'vital' that the U.S. finds a deal over the debt ceiling, Eurogroup president says."
Benzinga: "Xi Jinping Could 'Exploit' US Debt Ceiling Crisis, Warns Top Pentagon Leaders: 'China Describes Us As Declining Power'"
CNN continues: "If the United States defaults on its debt, it would undermine faith in the federal government’s ability to pay all its bills on time, affecting the government’s credit rating and unleashing massive turbulence in financial markets."
Good and Evil: There are only two options. One way is the path of reason and goodness, in which the debt ceiling is jacked up for the 81st time…and the disaster movie, otherwise known as US government spending, continues without intermission. Or…boo!...some killjoys in the hard right wing of the Republican Party…white supremacists and neo-nazis to a man…somehow prevent an increase. Then, the gates of Hell open wide…like the mouth of the devil himself, swallowing up the whole world economy. But even those knuckle-dragging Republicans who are blocking the debt ceiling increase are only doing so to get ‘concessions.’ Nobody wants a default. Except us.
As our old friend Sid Taylor used to say: “When your out-go exceeds your income, your upkeep is your downfall,” But there are two ends to that teeter totter. Out-go on one. In-come, on the other. All the commentators are focusing on adding some heft to the ‘income’ side. Without presenting any evidence, they claim the US government doesn’t have enough income…and that it needs to borrow more.
Nary a single newscaster or opinion monger – at least that we’ve seen – has looked at the other end…the out-go. Why not lighten up? When a family, or a business, reaches the end of its line of credit, it can of course just call the bank: “Hey…I went to the ATM. But, like, my card didn’t work. I called customer service. They said I have already exceeded my line of credit. Listen, could you spot me a few more dollars? I’ve got bills to pay.”
Downfall of an Empire: If you were a good credit risk…the bank might say “sure…no problem.” But what if you had already asked for an increase 80 times before? And what if there was no plausible way you could ever repay your debt? What if you had already crashed through your real debt ceiling – the amount that you could comfortably and reliably repay….and now you were just digging a deeper hole for yourself? And what if interest rates were on their way up – as they are – and it may soon be impossible even for you to keep up with the interest payments?
And what if you had lied to the bank about your liabilities? Stanley Druckenmiller: "This is what really annoys me, how no one talks about it... Do you know that the $32 trillion [in government debt] assumes the federal government will never make another Social Security or Medicare payment? [These huge obligations are not included as ‘liabilities’ in the national debt.] Only government accounting could think that the government is never going to make another payment, not one. Not to me... not to you guys when you get older. If you actually accounted for those (big) government programs…credible estimates put the value of that debt [total federal liabilities] at $200 trillion."
And what if, in your loan application to the bank, you forgot to mention your alimony payments, your mortgage, or your health insurance? Then, what would the bank say? “Uh…actually, we were just shutting down your account. Your past loans are being sent over to the collections department. We’ve sent someone over to repo your car. And your bank card has been deactivated.” What would you do? You could try to find another banker…perhaps catching him in the warm glow of a 3-martini lunch. But the 3-martini lunch is a relic of an earlier age. Like it or not, you’d probably have to cut back on your spending.
Geezers and Relics: We’re not breaking any new ground here… but the federal government receives plenty of money. It borrows because it chooses to, not because it needs to. This year tax receipts will be about the same as total government outlays in 2019. What are we missing? Was 2019 so horrible? We don’t recall any catastrophe that year. Would it be so awful if the feds couldn’t squander any more in 2023 than they did in 2019? And suppose the federales did default. Then, they’d find it harder to borrow. In effect, they’d have a real debt ceiling, not a fake one. They’d be forced to spend the money they had…and no more.
We watched Ms. Yellen’s speech at the G7 meeting. We had the impression that we were seeing a person, no longer at the top of her game, and not really saying anything. "There is no good alternative [to borrowing more money] that will save us from catastrophe.”
It was a sad show. We presume she once sounded as though she knew what she was talking about. Perhaps it’s time for her to stop talking. Ms. Yellen collected some $7 million for blah-blah speeches to Wall Street between her gigs at the Fed and the Treasury. Wasn’t that enough?
The top echelons of the US government are almost all relics. These geezers – Yellen is 76 – should have retired a long time ago. Their time is over. Their era is past. Their tricks no longer work. Spend, borrow, print…and raise the debt ceiling! You could get away with it only as long as inflation remained on the bench. Now that CPI increases of 5% are running loose on the field, it’s a whole new ball game.
And now, surely Ms. Yellen deserves better. She should learn from Lou Gehrig’s graceful performance in 1939. Gehrig was suffering from ALS, now known as “Lou Gehrig’s disease.” Though soon to die of the disease, he told the fans gathered in Yankee Stadium that he was “The luckiest man on the face of the earth” and retreated from public view. Poor Ms. Yellen’s age, her decrepitude and her incapacity are still on display. Maybe it’s time for her…along with Joe Biden, Donald Trump, the debt ceiling, ‘stimulus’ spending, $1 trillion deficits, and a long list of relics…to go the way of the three-martini lunch."
o
"Peak Focus for Complex Tasks With Beta Isochronic Tones"
Full screen recommended.
"Peak Focus for Complex Tasks
With Beta Isochronic Tones"
by Jason Lewis - Mind Amend
"This is a high-intensity audio brainwave entrainment session, using isochronic tones. Listen to this when you need a strong burst of intense focus to concentrate and study things like advanced mathematics, scientific formulas, financial analysis or any other complex mental activity. Listen to this track with your eyes open while doing the task/activity you want to focus on. Use this session in the morning, afternoon or early evening, to train your brain for better cognition, focus and thought processing. You can either sit somewhere quiet and comfortable with your eyes closed and give your brain a nice workout, or you can also listen to this while doing an activity that requires a boost in concentration.
Headphones are NOT REQUIRED for this video. Although headphones are not required you may find they produce a more intense effect, because they help to block out distracting external sounds.
o
"Isochronic tones are a fast and effective audio-based way to stimulate your brain. Among many of the benefits, they can help improve focus, relaxation, energy levels, sleep and more, without taking drugs or needing any special equipment. What isochronic tones essentially do is guide your dominant brainwave activity to a different frequency while you are listening to them, allowing you to influence and change your mental state and how you feel."
I strongly suggest you read Comments here:
○
"Isochronic Tones –
How They Work, the Benefits and the Research"
This is a brainwave entrainment audio session using isochronic tones combined with music. The isochronic tones are the repetitive beats you can hear on top of the music throughout the track. If you are new to this type of audio brainwave entrainment, find out how isochronic tones work and how they compare to binaural beats here:
○
Listen folks, we're out of time! Whether you want to know it or not we're literally in the fight of our lives, for our lives, right now, and it's going to get much, much worse. Some of you reading this will not survive, and I may not either, so I'll take any edge I can get, and you should too... This works for me. Prepare yourself, brace for impact...
- CP
"US Debt of $30 Trillion Visualized in Stacks of Physical Cash"
Full screen recommended.
"US Debt of $30 Trillion Visualized in Stacks of Physical Cash"
For conceptualizing the amount of debt being discussed. This was 2 years ago when the debt was only $30 trillion. Now it's $31.4 trillion, and about to explode higher. Try to imagine $2.5 QUADRILLION of derivatives, an impossibility really, inconceivable. As the glorious Mogambo Guru said, "We're so freakin' doomed!" Oh, we are...
Comments here:
o
So, if it's truly hopeless, and it is, then why bother?
If you were facing a firing squad, and we all are...
wouldn't you at least want to know why?
And who stood you against the wall? I would...
“Parasitic Derivatives: $1.5 – 2.4 Quadrillion Dollars, Too Big to Understand”
“Parasitic Derivatives: $1.5 – 2.5 Quadrillion Dollars,
Too Big to Understand”
By David Hague
“I recently returned from two weeks of ‘high level’ meetings with a group of Bankers [this is code for two weeks of subsidized debauchery with bankers] in Rome. As I sat at my desk, I was hoping to motivate myself to pursue a more chaste and pure existence. Unfortunately the Polar Vortex experienced by North America drained me of my good intentions. The bone chilling cold once again had me reaching for my trusty bottle of Jack Daniels for warmth and inspiration. My time in Rome had not been completely ‘wasted’, so to speak. I had secured a contract from the European Central Bank [ECB] to research the topic of Derivatives. I was to present my findings at the upcoming World Economic Forum in Davos later that month.
One Quadrillion Dollars: Too Big to Understand: Dear Reader, please resist your natural instinct to click away from this commentary at the mere mention of the word ‘Derivatives’. I am acutely aware of the boredom and befuddlement that this word instills in you. At this point I would simply remind you that the derivatives market is estimated to exceed one quadrillion dollars. [This incredibly large number is actually an accurate estimate of the size of the derivatives marketplace]. (In addition, unfunded liabilities, like medical care and pensions, are at least $300 trillion globally. If we add gross derivatives of $1.5 quadrillion, which are likely to turn into real debt as counterparties fail, the total debt and liabilities are above $2 quadrillion. Source - CP) Despite the fact the derivatives market eclipses the market capitalization of the NYSE by an exponential factor, it is not discussed, reported or tracked because it is simply too complicated and opaque. Warren Buffet’s, comment about ‘weapons of mass financial destruction’ seem to be the beginning and end of any discussion on the topic.
Derivatives are a parasitic financial instrument: For those of you who are unschooled on the topic of derivatives, allow me to explain. Derivatives are abstract financial instruments, which, like parasites, can attach themselves to all manner of stocks, bonds, mortgages, commodity, debt obligations, currency exchange, interest rate fluctuations… in short, anything. Derivatives exist in the ‘twilight zone’ of the banking industry. Like black holes, their presence and massive influence are acknowledged yet the true influence on the global economy of this quadrillion dollar ‘event horizon’ is only theoretical. The near catastrophic disasters at Barings, JP Morgan and AIG are small examples of their destructive powers. However I will offer you Investorpedia’s more clinical definition. “A security whose price is dependent upon or derived from one or more underlying assets. The derivative itself is merely a contract between two or more parties.”
You got to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em, {Kenny Rogers}: One might think of derivatives as a random game of online poker: you don’t know who your opponents are [your counterparty], you do not know if you will be paid [counterparty risk], you do not know if the game is legitimate, [lack of regulation], and your opponents are probably able to see what cards you are holding, [market domination by large banks]. As well, you are making bets that in many instances neither you nor your opponents fully grasp [complexity of the market]. With each wager you are potentially risking not only your current assets, but your future assets as well. [Leverage]. In some cases you do not know how much you are betting. Imagine as well, that you play this game every day with trillions of dollars that you do not have. This is the global derivatives market.
It is all Greek to me: Alternately, as derivatives are often created as a form of insurance, think of them as an insurance policy in which you:
• Do not know the name, address or any contact information relating to your insurer.
• Do not know if your insurer has the resources to pay a claim.
• Do not understand the insurance contract as it is written in Greek.
• Must rely on a shadowy third party [ISDA] to decide what constitutes a claim. [Credit event]
• Do not know whether your insurer is itself vulnerable to the particular risk you have contracted with it to insure.
His moral lassitude allowed him to excel: Dear Reader, I digress, let me return to my narrative. The aforementioned lucrative contract was secured by two key factors. The first factor was my friendship with Gustavo Laframboise-Pierre, the European Central Bank’s [ECB] Global Director of Statistical Creation. My relationship with such an esteemed member of the ECB traced its roots back to Gustavo’s days as a bookie for Wall Street’s elite. I referred so much business to him we became very good friends. His station in life took a remarkable turn when a senior member of the ECB, while in New York on a ‘fact finding mission’ [this is code for visiting his favorite escort] made an outrageously large and incorrect wager on the outcome of the 2010 World Cup. (Perhaps unsurprisingly, the term ‘derivative’ is commonly used in sports betting!) The only way the debt could be settled was for the banker to offer Gustavo a highly paid sinecure at the ECB. Gustavo became the Global Director of Statistical Creation with the responsibility of making up statistics to support whatever fantastical and deranged policies Central Banks around the world were initiating. Remarkably Gustavo’s aptitude for numbers, coupled with his moral lassitude allowed him to excel at his job. It was Gustavo who invented the term ‘Quantitative Easing’ as a benign euphemism for runaway money printing.
Where ignorance is bliss, ‘tis folly to be wise’: The second factor that secured the contract for me was a chance remark I made as Gustavo and I enjoyed a ‘working lunch’, with several senior executives who represented many of the world’s largest banks. The working lunch was held at Rome’s exclusive Blue Moon Gentleman’s Club. As the featured dancer left the stage I happened to mention to the assorted luminaries that I had read an article on the subject of derivatives. The bankers looked at me with something akin to awe and reverence. Gustavo whispered to me that the topic of derivatives had been discussed in a recent conference call by the world’s bankers. The conclusion reached at that time was that derivatives were too boring and too complicated for bankers to grasp. Despite JP Morgan’s very public, expensive and monumentally stupid 5 billon dollar derivatives trading loss bankers still choose to remain cocooned in a ‘Cloak of Ignorance’ as it relates to derivatives. Thomas Gray’s lament that ‘where ignorance is bliss, ’tis folly to be wise’ could easily be the mission statement of the global banking industry.
I had read a complete article, I was a ‘de facto expert’: Dear reader, I am not being rude and offensive in my remarks about JP Morgan. Surely you would agree with me that any large bank that loses $5 billion in derivatives trading is ignorant of the properties and risks of derivatives? The fact that I had actually read a complete article on the subject made me a de facto expert on the topic. Gustavo, in an act of kindness, seized the opportunity on my behalf and pressed his colleagues to retain me to research the topic and make a presentation at the upcoming World Economic Forum in Davos. Thus I found myself preparing to dazzle the world’s financial elite with my insights into the risks and opportunities presented by the global derivatives market. In a rush to complete the deal before the next dancer took the stage it was agreed that I would receive the standard banker’s honorarium of $5,000/hour up to a maximum of ‘whatever it takes’.
At $5,000/hr., you would surely not expect me to be brief: I sat at my desk, sipping ‘Gentleman Jack‘ while I looked out at the bleak weather that made Brooklyn so depressing in the winter. My TV was tuned to CNBC, as I waited for Wall Street to open. I put my crack pipe in its case. Dear reader like many of you [especially those of you who work in the banking industry], I have learned all too well, the dangers of mixing crack cocaine with whiskey on an empty stomach. [Have we not all indulged, to our regret, that particular venial sin at least once?] I collected my thoughts and began to write my lengthy tome on the derivatives market. Dear reader at $5,000/hr., you would surely not expect me to be brief.
Lions and Tigers and Bears [and derivatives] Oh My!: I do not want to frighten you. However I will share with you some facts about derivatives that will have you reacting as nervously as Dorothy did in the Wizard of OZ when confronted with the thought of Lions and Tigers and Bears. ‘Derivatives, Oh My’, will I suspect be the words that escape your lips.
• Size of the derivatives market: 1.5 – 2.4 QUADRILLION dollars
• Size of Global Stock and bond markets: 175 trillion dollars
• Who regulates the Derivatives market? LOL, Regulation is a ‘work in progress’ dominated by the big banks.
How dangerous are derivatives? They almost destroyed the world’s largest insurance company, AIG, as well as the global economy. Seriously, you don’t remember? Just Google the words AIG and collapse. Alternately you might call Jamie Dimon at JP Morgan and ask him if Derivatives are dangerous. Have recent regulatory changes made the world economy less likely to implode from a derivative fuelled explosion? Actually as one might expect, thanks to regulatory enhancements that had to run the gauntlet of bank lobbyists prior to their approval, the world’s economy is in more danger than ever from a derivatives inspired meltdown.
‘Duck Dynasty’ and ‘Real Housewives’ to the rescue: How much attention does the Main Street pay to the world’s largest and riskiest casino? [AKA: the Derivatives market]. If one were to Google the word derivatives, one will get 34 million ‘hits’. Alternately, if one does a similar search for the words stocks bonds and markets one will get 400 million ‘hits’. The 34 million ‘hits’ generated by a Google search of the word derivatives compares unfavorably with the 37 million ‘hits’ generated by a search of the term ‘Real Housewives of Atlanta’, the 209 million ‘hits’ generated by a search of the term ‘Duck Dynasty’ or the 713 million ‘hits’ generated by searching the word ‘Sex’. One must conclude that only when derivatives are discussed by one of the ‘Real Housewives of Atlanta’ posing nude in bed with one of the cast members of ‘Duck Dynasty’ will derivatives receive the attention they deserve.
Reality bites: Derivatives can only be discussed as ‘Fake News’: Where can one find insights and coverage of the Derivatives Market in the mainstream media? Is Fox News or CNN my best choice? Sadly Dear reader your best choice would have been The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Despite the calamitous risk and obvious importance of this topic only Mr. Stewart and his team dared to share information with the general public. Given the outlandish and frightening risks derivatives constitute to the Global Economy, perhaps Mr. Stewart was correct that it can only be discussed in the ‘Fake News’ format.
Derivatives: better suited for Ripley’s Believe it or not than the Wall Street Journal: How bizarre is the derivatives market? How is the concept of money for nothing propagated by the derivatives market? What is the difference between a chump and a champion in the derivatives market? I will leave it to Shah Gilani in his excellent post in “Wall Street: Insights and Indictments“ to explain. Suffice to say that one is able to buy insurance in the derivatives market. One can then cause the insured event to occur by collaborating with a third party. All that remains is to collect the insurance proceeds. [To be clear the proceeds are usually in the tens of millions of dollars.] The derivatives market makes the Ponzi-like money printing of the Central banks look like ‘Amateur Hour’.
Who needs ‘Crack’? Dear reader, usually I needed a little help from my friend Mr. Crack to feel as paranoid and euphoric as I did at this moment. Paranoid, because it was clear to me that the derivatives market was truly a weapon of mass financial destruction. Euphoric because I knew that my research would make my ‘Derivatives’ presentation at the World Economic Forum a groundbreaking ‘tour de force’ that would vault me to the forefront of ‘talking heads’ that pass for experts on mainstream media. Fame, fortune, a book deal and perhaps that elusive Nobel Prize would surely follow. My twenty minutes of painstaking research, had made me one of the world’s foremost experts on this complex subject. [BTW Dear Reader by reaching this point in my commentary, you surely now know more about derivatives than most bankers and traders on Wall Street. You should be quite pleased.]
David, you are an imbecile: I decided to reach out to my pal Gustavo and share some of my findings. I knew that it was 3:30 in the afternoon in Paris so I would be able to catch Gustavo just as he arrived for another day of work. “Gustavo”, I intoned, breathless with excitement. “I have uncovered some startling, controversial, and frightening information about derivatives. The luminaries and leading lights who attend my presentation in Davos will be utterly gobsmacked by my revelations. The media will undoubtedly ensure that my findings go viral. The topic of derivatives will no longer exist only in the dark shadows of the banking industry. The danger that derivatives pose to the global economy will permeate the consciousness of Main Street.” Gustavo sighed, “David, I do not know if you are stupid or naïve. Every September when you bet $1,000 that the perennially atrocious Toronto Maple Leafs will win the Stanley Cup, I assumed you were simply ingenuous. Your comments today have convinced me that you are an imbecile. Let me assure you that those will not be the findings that you present at the World Economic Forum. Rather you will inform the world that derivatives are a financial instrument that is being used by brilliant and prudent financial professionals to mitigate risk and make the world a safer place.”
The ‘Truth Will Out’: “Gustavo”, I groaned, “that would be a lie. I cannot in good conscience, sacrifice my integrity, my honor, my core beliefs and my good name simply to placate Wall Street and the Central Banks. I have a responsibility to my readers on Main Street to inform them, to warn them, to prepare them for the likely financial chaos that derivatives will cause”. “Gustavo”, I said with iron willed determination, “the Truth Will Out”. “David”, Gustavo snarled, “If you change the tenor of your presentation and indicate that derivatives are the most benign form of financial instrument, somewhat akin to Treasury bills, we will double your fee”.
Move along nothing to see here: Dear Reader, in summary let me say that derivatives are the most benign form of financial instrument, somewhat akin to treasury bills. Gustavo’s immutable logic and persuasive argument was instrumental in helping me reach the correct conclusion regarding the risks to the Global economy posed by derivatives. So Dear Reader, move along, there is nothing to see here.”
Gregory Mannarino, "Bank Derivative Exposure Is Way Worse Than Anyone Expected"
Gregory Mannarino, AM 5/12/23
"Bank Derivative Exposure Is Way
Worse Than Anyone Expected"
Comments here:
o
"$2.5 Quadrillion Disaster Waiting to Happen
- Egon von Greyerz"
By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
"There is sufficiency in the world
for Man's need but not for his greed."
- Mahatma Gandhi
"Egon von Greyerz (EvG) stores gold for clients at the biggest private gold vault in the world buried deep in the Swiss Alps. EvG is a financial and precious metals expert. EvG is a former Swiss banker and an expert in risk. He says the risk in the global markets has never been this high.
EvG explains, “Credit has increased dramatically through derivatives. All instruments being issued now by banks, pension funds, stock funds, it’s all synthetic. There is no real underlying payments in anything almost. Therefore, my estimate for derivatives would be at least $2 quadrillion, and I think that is probably conservative. Then, we have debt on top of that of $300 trillion, and we also have a couple hundred trillion dollars of unfunded liabilities. So, we are talking about $2.5 quadrillion, and that’s with a global GDP of $80 trillion. So, there is a disaster waiting to happen, and especially because all this created money has created no value whatsoever. I always knew this would collapse, and it’s taken longer than I expected, but I think we are at the end of a major era.
These derivatives, at some point in the coming few years, will actually turn into debt. Central banks will have to cover all the outstanding liabilities of the commercial banks as we are seeing now with Credit Suisse, Bank of England and etc. This is going to happen across the board. Whether it’s called derivatives or called debt, as far as I am concerned, it’s the same thing. It will have the same effect on the world financial system, which will be disastrous, of course.”
EvG says the derivative markets were simply a way for financial institutions to carry debt and not show it on their balance sheets. In the end, everything will balance out. EvG goes on to say, “Nobody can repay the debt, and they can’t even pay interest. So, therefore, when the debt implodes, so will the assets that were financed by this debt. So, both sides of the balance sheet have to come down. Whether it comes down by 50%, 75% or 90%, I don’t know. All I think about is risk, and the financial system will not survive in its present form. Central banks only use one kind of medicine, and that is more printed money. Now, you are getting negative returns on printed money. So, that is not going to save anything.
Sadly we are looking at a situation when this system will start to implode. The rich are still rich, but the poor are really poor. Overall in the UK, Germany and most European countries, people don’t have enough money to live. This is a human disaster already. With food costs going up 25% and energy going up the same and gasoline, interest rates and rents, people don’t have enough money, and that is happening now. It’s a human disaster of mega proportions. It’s so sad, and governments will have no chance of doing anything about it.”
In closing, EvG says, “This is why it is getting closer for implosion because the whole system can’t take this. The risk is increasing exponentially. So, I think people should be prepared. Most asset markets have lost money, and it is going to get worse.” There is much more in the 43-minute interview.
Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he goes One-on-One with Egon von Greyerz of Matterhorn Asset Management, which can be found on GoldSwitzerland.com.
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Related:
"We Have Not Seen the Worst"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, I Allegedly 5/12/23
"We Have Not Seen the Worst"
"There is so much happening in the economy. We are getting warnings from so many people, and we have not seen the worst of anything. The banking, interest rates, and the markets in general are completely upside down."
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"Major Price Increases At Dollar General! Saving Where We Can!"
Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, 5/12/23
"Major Price Increases At Dollar General!
Saving Where We Can!"
"In today's vlog we are at Dollar General and are noticing massive price increases! We are here to check out skyrocketing prices, and empty shelves everywhere! It's getting rough out here as stores seem to be struggling with getting products!"
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Thursday, May 11, 2023
"They F%&!^D Around And Are About To Find Out"
Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 5/11/23
"They F%&!^D Around And Are About To Find Out"
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"The Economic Storm Is Closing In; Housing Market Cannot Survive Without Jobs"
Jeremiah Babe, 5/11/23
"The Economic Storm Is Closing In;
Housing Market Cannot Survive Without Jobs"
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"The Retirement Crisis Is Turning The American Dream Into An Absolute Nightmare"
Full screen recommended.
"The Retirement Crisis Is Turning
The American Dream Into An Absolute Nightmare"
by Epic Economist
"The American retirement dream is turning into a horrifying nightmare. Millions of Americans will simply not be able to retire let alone live the retirement of their dreams. While previous generations were able to rely on a combination of social security, personal savings, and employer-sponsored plans to secure their future, all of these systems are breaking down at a staggering pace and no longer are a reliable form to build a solid financial foundation for retirement. Economists warn that many middle-class Americans will soon be disappointed to find out that they will have to work for much longer than they’ve planned. Research shows that the vast majority of U.S. workers reaching retirement age have only saved enough to provide an annual income of $3,600 when they will need about 20 times that amount to be able to afford basic expenses and skyrocketing healthcare costs. In today’s video, we expose the dire straits of the retirement market right now, and why this growing crisis is going to leave America in shambles.
With the cost of living putting U.S. workers on the edge, the dream of retirement is looking more like a fairytale... unless you are filthy rich. Of course, we all have dreamed at one point or another about what our retirement might look like. Many people idealize stopping working by their mid-sixties so they can spend their time engaging in other activities such as traveling, being with loved ones, and pursuing their hobbies and interests. Although every dream may be different, everything comes down to having a good financial cushion to fall back on. However, for the overwhelming majority of middle-class Americans, this is no longer within their reach.
In today’s economy, the ability to achieve financial security in retirement is worryingly tenuous for about 67% of Americans at or near retirement age. Given the scarcity of pensions and Social Security’s imminent demise, we are headed toward a reality in which personal savings will be the most significant source of income for retirees. This means that most part of the U.S. population are not, and may never be prepared. Estimates by NIRS show that a 65-year-old worker, planning for a possible 30-year retirement, will need savings of around $1.8 million to generate an annual income of $75,000 a year. In contrast, the agency also highlights that the median retirement savings of Americans between the ages of 55 and 64 is currently zero.
All of this indicates that more than two-thirds of income earners about to hit retirement ages will lack the resources to maintain their lifestyle in retirement and are potentially at risk of running out of money during their senior years. These risks are compounded due to longer life expectancy afforded by medical advances and lifestyle changes.
We not only need our retirement system to be fixed, but our economic and monetary system as well. We are working more and receiving less, which then makes us consume less, leading to a more vulnerable economy. Monetary policies have plunged the value of our dollars, and now our money purchases less too. Jobs pay less than they once paid our parents and grandparents, so we achieve less than they did and cope with higher expenses for all bare necessities. No matter how hard we try, we continue to lose. And the good old days are just a very distant memory at this point. It feels like we’re stuck in this nightmare where we can never see the end of our suffering. But now more than ever, it is time to wake up."
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Musical Interlude: Yanni, “To the One Who Knows”
Full screen recommended.
Yanni, “To the One Who Knows”
"A Look to the Heavens"
"Who knows what evil lurks in the eyes of galaxies? The Hubble knows -- or in the case of spiral galaxy M64 - is helping to find out. Messier 64, also known as the Evil Eye or Sleeping Beauty Galaxy, may seem to have evil in its eye because all of its stars rotate in the same direction as the interstellar gas in the galaxy's central region, but in the opposite direction in the outer regions. Captured here in great detail by the Earth-orbiting Hubble Space Telescope, enormous dust clouds obscure the near-side of M64's central region, which are laced with the telltale reddish glow of hydrogen associated with star formation.
M64 lies about 17 million light years away, meaning that the light we see from it today left when the last common ancestor between humans and chimpanzees roamed the Earth. The dusty eye and bizarre rotation are likely the result of a billion-year-old merger of two different galaxies."
"No Smooth Road..."
"Life has no smooth road for any of us; and in the bracing atmosphere
of a high aim the very roughness stimulates the climber to steadier steps,
till the legend, over steep ways to the stars, fulfills itself."
- W. C. Doane
The Poet: William Butler Yeats, "The Second Coming"
"The Second Coming"
"Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?"
- William Butler Yeats, January 1919
"Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world," indeed.
"The Sociopath Next Door"
"The Sociopath Next Door"
by Martha Stout
"Imagine - if you can - not having a conscience, none at all, no feelings of guilt or remorse no matter what you do, no limiting sense of concern for the well-being of strangers, friends, or even family members. Imagine no struggles with shame, not a single one in your whole life, no matter what kind of selfish, lazy, harmful, or immoral action you had taken. And pretend that the concept of responsibility is unknown to you, except as a burden others seem to accept without question, like gullible fools.
Now add to this strange fantasy the ability to conceal from other people that your psychological makeup is radically different from theirs. Since everyone simply assumes that conscience is universal among human beings, hiding the fact that you are conscience-free is nearly effortless. You are not held back from any of your desires by guilt or shame, and you are never confronted by others for your cold-bloodedness. The ice water in your veins is so bizarre, so completely outside of their personal experience, that they seldom even guess at your condition. In other words, you are completely free of internal restraints, and your unhampered liberty to do just as you please, with no pangs of conscience, is conveniently invisible to the world.
You can do anything at all, and still your strange advantage over the majority of people, who are kept in line by their consciences will most likely remain undiscovered. How will you live your life? What will you do with your huge and secret advantage, and with the corresponding handicap of other people (conscience)? The answer will depend largely on just what your desires happen to be, because people are not all the same. Even the profoundly unscrupulous are not all the same. Some people - whether they have a conscience or not - favor the ease of inertia, while others are filled with dreams and wild ambitions. Some human beings are brilliant and talented, some are dull-witted, and most, conscience or not, are somewhere in between. There are violent people and nonviolent ones, individuals who are motivated by blood lust and those who have no such appetites. Provided you are not forcibly stopped, you can do anything at all.
Maybe you are someone who craves money and power, and though you have no vestige of conscience, you do have a magnificent IQ. You have the driving nature and the intellectual capacity to pursue tremendous wealth and influence, and you are in no way moved by the nagging voice of conscience that prevents other people from doing everything and anything they have to do to succeed. You choose business, politics, the law, banking or international development, or any of a broad array of other power professions, and you pursue your career with a cold passion that tolerates none of the usual moral or legal encumbrances. When it is expedient, you doctor the accounting and shred the evidence, you stab your employees and your clients (or your constituency) in the back, marry for money, tell lethal premeditated lies to people who trust you, attempt to ruin colleagues who are powerful or eloquent, and simply steamroll over groups who are dependent and voiceless. And all of this you do with the exquisite freedom that results from having no conscience whatsoever.
You become unimaginably, unassailably, and maybe even globally successful. Why not? With your big brain, and no conscience to rein in your schemes, you can do anything at all. If you are born at the right time, with some access to family fortune, and you have a special talent for whipping up other people's hatred and sense of deprivation, you can arrange to kill large numbers of unsuspecting people. With enough money, you can accomplish this from far away, and you can sit back safely and watch in satisfaction. Crazy and frightening - and real, in about 6 percent of the population.
The high incidence of sociopathy in human society has a profound effect on the rest of us who must live on this planet, too, even those of us who have not been clinically traumatized. The individuals who constitute this 6 percent drain our relationships, our bank accounts, our accomplishments, our self-esteem, our very peace on earth.
Yet surprisingly, many people know nothing about this disorder, or if they do, they think only in terms of violent psychopathy - murderers, serial killers, mass murderers - people who have conspicuously broken the law many times over, and who, if caught, will be imprisoned, maybe even put to death by our legal system. We are not commonly aware of, nor do we usually identify, the larger number of nonviolent sociopaths among us, people who often are not blatant lawbreakers, and against whom our formal legal system provides little defense.
Most of us would not imagine any correspondence between conceiving an ethnic genocide and, say, guiltlessly lying to one's boss about a coworker. But the psychological correspondence is not only there; it is chilling. Simple and profound, the link is the absence of the inner mechanism that beats up on us, emotionally speaking, when we make a choice we view as immoral, unethical, neglectful, or selfish. Most of us feel mildly guilty if we eat the last piece of cake in the kitchen, let alone what we would feel if we intentionally and methodically set about to hurt another person. Those who have no conscience at all are a group unto themselves, whether they be homicidal tyrants or merely ruthless social snipers.
The presence or absence of conscience is a deep human division, arguably more significant than intelligence, race, or even gender. What differentiates a sociopath who lives off the labors of others from one who occasionally robs convenience stores, or from one who is a contemporary robber baron - or what makes the difference between an ordinary bully and a sociopathic murderer - is nothing more than social status, drive, intellect, blood lust, or simple opportunity. What distinguishes all of these people from the rest of us is an utterly empty hole in the psyche, where there should be the most evolved of all humanizing functions."
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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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