"We Don’t Really Know What’s Happening"

"We Don’t Really Know What’s Happening"

by Paul Rosenberg

"And, believe it or not, this is rather good news. I’ll explain. We all like to know what’s happening in the world, and for good reason… understanding our surroundings is essential to survival. We instinctively seek information… we need information. There is, however, a problem that we face: No matter how much “news” you consume, you won’t really know what’s going on in the world.

We can’t know, because ‘the news’ is half illusion, provided by government-dependent corporations that are paid to keep you watching and to keep you joined to the status quo. Granted, they are quite good at providing pictures from disaster areas, but when it comes to explaining why the disaster happened, they mislead almost every time. Yes, some truth makes its way through the news machine, but most of it is wrapped in layers of manipulation. If, for example, you watch the news feeds all day, you’ll find a good deal of truth, but you’ll find it amongst a pile of half-truths. Do you really have enough time to analyze them all?

One Piece of Truth: The truth about public reporting comes out from time to time, but usually well after the fact. So, here’s one piece of truth that’s worth remembering: For those who don’t recall the 1970s, Daniel Ellsberg was a man who worked as an analyst at the RAND Corp., moved from there to the Pentagon, spent two years in Vietnam working for the State Department, and then went back to RAND. He is the man who leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971. These were the documents that revealed that three US presidential administrations had been plainly, knowingly, and openly lying to the public.

Here’s what Ellsberg thought the New York Times was good for: "… to see what the rubes and the yokels are thinking about and what they think is going on and what they think the policy is…" Later, in 1998, he said this in an interview: "The public is lied to every day by the president, by his spokespeople, by his officers. If you can’t handle the thought that the president lies to the public for all kinds of reasons, you couldn’t stay in the government at that level…"

And here’s what Michael Deaver, a top aide to President Ronald Reagan, said about the press: The media I’ve had a lot to do with is lazy. We fed them and they ate it every day." That’s the truth about news, my friends. The news channels and newspapers are where the yokels get informed, presidents flatly lie, and legislatures are massively corrupt. And Internet news sites primarily recycle TV and newspaper stories.

Yes, some truth does slide through, but it looks almost the same as the other stuff. The only places we get anything close to refined truth is on a few Internet sites… and many of them have a particular axe to grind. The Internet is being funneled into Google, Facebook, and a few other friends of the state. Social media is being massively censored, and the the independents are being squeezed out anyway.

More Truth: This is what William Colby, former director of the CIA, is quoted as saying in "Derailing Democracy: The America the Media Don’t Want You to See": "The Central Intelligence Agency owns everyone of any significance in the major media."

Now, since people have disputed that quotation, let’s back it up: Please consider Operation Mockingbird: Beginning in 1948, a CIA agent named Frank Wisner started gathering journalists and broadcasters… and started using them to ‘inform’ the public. The operation soon got so elaborate that other agents called it “Wisner’s Wurlitzer.” (Wurlitzer being a popular brand of organ.) In other words, Wisner played the media like a musical instrument.

While the real situation is more complex than this short description, rest assured that every major news organization in every major country is manipulated by intelligence groups. Where do you think they get all those “unnamed sources”? If you were an intel operator, wouldn’t you do precisely that? You’d be considered derelict not to. So, you can rely upon this fact.

And So…I could continue listing facts, but there’s no real point. The crucial thing is to accept the truth: The news is worked over before it reaches us. We do know some facts, of course, and a generation from now we may learn nearly the whole truth about some of these events, but only if we wait and then go out of our way to find it.

The good news in all of this comes when we accept the facts and stop running our brains on bad information. Yes, it would be nice to know what’s really going on, but we don’t, and there isn’t much we can do about it. So, it’s time to stop treating the news seriously.

So long as the guv-megacorp-intel structure remains, it will enforce our ignorance. That’s what such organizations do, by their very nature. To expect differently is like expecting a dog to sprout wings and fly. But once we accept that fact, we stop being spun around by the talking heads and their handlers. And then, you can start building the kind of world you’d like to live in."

- https://freemansperspective.com/

"Only One Question..."

"There's only one question that matters, and it's the one you never get around to asking. People are capable of varying degrees of truth. The majority spend their entire lives fabricating an elaborate skein of lies, immersing themselves in the faith of bad faith, doing whatever it takes to feel safe. The person who truly lives has precious few moments of safety, learns to thrive in any kind of storm. It's the truth you can stare down stone-cold that makes you what you are. Weak or strong. Live or die. Prove yourself. How much truth can you take?"

- Karen Marie Moning

"Golden Disobedience"

"Golden Disobedience"

By Sandy Sandfort

"Inertia is a human frailty. Too often, we go along to get along. We conform. Because of this, those who claim authority can get most of us to do their bidding if it comes with a plausible justification and is only incremental. We get nickel-and-dimed to death, the death of a thousand cuts.

Back on April 5, 1933, His Majesty, Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR), had a pen and a telephone. So he issued Executive Order 6102, which made it a federal crime for Americans to own or trade gold anywhere in the world. There were some minor exceptions for some jewelry, industrial uses, collectors’ coins, and dental gold, but the vast majority of the gold had to be turned in.

My father instantly understood what was going on and he didn’t like it. “They’re going to devalue the dollar!” he predicted. Roosevelt didn’t give much time to comply either. The deadline was May 1. And if Americans did not comply, they faced criminal prosecution under the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917. Scofflaws were looking at a fine of up to $10,000 (1933 dollars, about a third of a million dollars today) and up to ten years in prison.

My parents made the conscious decision to become outlaws. At every possible opportunity for the next three weeks (and substantially longer), my parents followed Gresham’s law (“Bad money drives out good.”), not federal law. They spent paper and collected gold. My father was a dentist, so he could own some dental gold, but that wasn’t enough. He wanted to covert as much paper into gold as possible. So he gave his patients discounts for payment in gold. “Sam,” a neighbor who was a banker, also helped collect gold for himself and my parents. They would repay his help later when they periodically ‘laundered’ gold for him and themselves.

Even after the deadline, gold still kept coming in. Mostly it was from people who didn’t have the time or the inclination to turn in their gold to the government. However, many feared prosecution and were happy to deal with my parents instead of FDR. Plus they got a better deal.

So where did they launder their tidy little nest egg? Why, “South of the Border, Down Mexico Way,” of course. Mexico had no Executive Order 6102. My mother was born in the mountains above Albuquerque, New Mexico, and spoke fluent Spanish. She and my father loved traveling though the backwaters of Mexico. At first, they traveled alone, and later, after my brother and I came along, the whole family (including the dog) would go exploring in the land of mañana. (Somewhere there is a picture of me, age one, sitting on a portable potty, experiencing my first-ever bout with “Montezuma’s revenge.”)

My parents carried whatever gold they intended to sell, stashed in the car or on their person. The usual routine was to go to the section of town where casas de cambio were found. (Think of it as the “Street of the Money Changers.”) My mother – all 5’1” of her – would go down the street and show a gold double eagle to every money changer at every kiosk and storefront. In Spanish, she would ask, “How much will you pay for these?” When she found the best price, she would give my father the high sign. He would join her and they would conclude the deal. Sometimes the gold was theirs, sometimes, Sam’s. Sometimes they got pesos and sometimes dollars, depending on what they needed at the time. So, the ‘illicit’ gold paid for a fun trip and got converted to ‘clean’ funds for themselves and Sam. What’s the crime in that?

And the Beat Goes On…My family never showed much respect for government laws, per se. No victim, no crime, even if the government disagreed. The general ethical belief of the Sandfort family was pretty much in harmony with the Golden Rule. It had worked for cultures and religions for thousands of years and it worked for us. That was our law. Man-made laws either adhere to the Golden Rule (don’t murder people, duh) and so are unnecessary, or they violate it, such as “The War on (Some) Drugs,” so they were nominally complied with, ignored, or circumvented.

So, when wartime laws said that a seller had to follow certain rationing rules to sell his own products, many buyers and sellers simply conspired to make their own decisions. When my parents needed and could afford a new car for business, the local Chevy dealer was happy to ‘cook the books,’ take their money, and give them a new sedan.

Later, when my family traveled in that car and others, my mother would prepare food for us to eat as we drove. We stopped only for gas… and the agricultural inspection station at the California state line. Of course, we had items that we were required by law to declare, but if you hide them in your backpack or under the car seat and lie, you can save a lot of time and keep from having to throw away perfectly good food.

And then there was the time we smuggled a live Mexican iguana in a cigar box, but don’t get me started…"

- https://freemansperspective.com/

Dan, I Allegedly, "Your Insurance is Canceled"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly AM 10/5/23

"Your Insurance is Canceled"

"Imagine paying for your insurance for years and you get a letter telling you that your insurance has been canceled. Could you imagine this? Progressive insurance just announced that they joined the ranks of other insurance companies and will not be renewing policies in Florida and other states. This is horrible news for people."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"How It Really Is"

"Bond Market Meltdown"

"Bond Market Meltdown"

Are stocks next?

by Bill Bonner and Joel Bowman

Poitou, France - "It was a joke. A spoof. A send-up. Or…maybe not. We refer to the “Report from Iron Mountain.” Published in 1967, it was a bestseller. And yet, Lyndon Johnson ‘hit the roof’ when he read it. He wanted it banned. Most likely, it really was meant as a satire on public policy…supposedly created by government hacks themselves. It claimed to be the product of a secret panel, acting like a think tank…tackling tough issues…doing a ‘deep dive’ into the logic of US foreign policy. It was all a lie; but the surprise was – the important insights were far truer than anything you could get from The New York Times.

We interrupt this program with a news flash. Reuters: "LONDON (Reuters) - A rout in government bond markets deepened on Wednesday with U.S. yields reaching their highest in 16 years, souring appetite for riskier assets as investors bet that interest rates will remain persistently high, boding ill for the world economy.

The U.S. Treasury 10-year yield rose 6.9 basis points (bps) to 4.872%, its highest since 2007, after climbing nearly a dozen bps on Tuesday's job openings data that pointed to resilience in the U.S. economy.

Thirty-year Treasury yields rose above 5% for the first time since August 2007, just before the global financial crisis.

European bonds followed suit, with yields on Germany's benchmark 10-year debt rising above 3% for the first time since 2011. The country's 30-year yield climbed to its latest 12-year high."

The Fed giveth absurdly low interest rates, which encouraged the world to take on $307 trillion in debt. Now, Mr. Market taketh away the excess. That’s why we’ve included no bonds in our allocation portfolio.

The Meltdown Arrives: Here’s the view from Bloomberg: "Long Bonds’ Historic 46% Meltdown Rivals Burst of Dot-Com Bubble." "Losses on longer-dated Treasuries are beginning to rival some of the most notorious market meltdowns in US history. Bonds maturing in 10 years or more have slumped 46% since peaking in March 2020, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s just shy of the 49% plunge in US stocks in the aftermath of the dot-com bust at the turn of the century. The rout in 30-year bonds has been even worse, tumbling 53%, nearing the 57% slump in equities during the depths of the financial crisis."

Our guess: stocks will follow. But let us return to our regularly scheduled programming. Today, we’re looking at how the crusading spirit makes it almost impossible to return to a normal economy and a more civilized nation. The Guardian: "DeSantis Invokes China ‘Boogeyman’ Narrative Amid Flailing Campaign." "It was a desperately needed moment of grandeur for Ron DeSantis: the Florida governor’s strongman act over China briefly lifting his stuttering presidential campaign during last week’s Republican primary debate in California.

But what DeSantis left unsaid as he railed against China’s growing global influence, while promising a “hard power” approach to Beijing should he win the White House, was how his posturing was hurting students and families back in his home state. DeSantis stripped four private schools of state scholarship money, alleging without evidence they had “direct ties to the Chinese Communist Party”.

Stoking Fear: Are ‘direct ties to the Chinese Communist Party’ a bad thing? How about direct ties to the Republican party? How about the party across the street? Here’s Percy Allan to explain it: "Stoking fear of China is a vote-winner across party lines. Indeed, hatred of China is now the single issue that unites Democrats and Republicans. Biden referred to China as “bad people” who when they have problems do “bad things.”

The demonization of China has clearly worked. The 2023 survey by the Pew Research Center found that 83% of Americans hold negative views of China. The share who says China is an “enemy” is now 38%. An IPSOS poll found one-third of Americans view China as an imminent threat and two in five Americans think that war with China is likely in the next five years."

Are the Chinese ‘bad people?’ Bad like Germans in 1914? Bad like Muslims in the 12th century? Coincidentally, yesterday marked the day in 1147 that the French army, commanded by Louis VII arrived at the gates of Constantinople. It had come all the way from Vezelay in France, gathering more soldiers, adventurers and camp followers along the way. Bernard of Clairvaux was a marvelous speaker, apparently. In every town, he mounted pulpits or scaffolds and roused the rabble to leave their ordinary lives, ‘take up the cross’ and follow him on this Great Crusade against the Moors, Saracens, Arabs, and all other Muslims.

Surely, the Muslims were bad. Everyone said so! And so the great host of Louis VII lumbered, stumbled, dragged itself down through kingdoms and duchies, towns and farms. The locals hid their wives and daughters, their tools and treasures. The mob was an unruly collection of misfits, ne’er-do-wells, and rogues…along with a few knights and true believers, who actually thought they were making the world a better place. And they all needed to eat.

The Road to Damascus: Louis was to be joined there, at Constantinople, by another large, and in some ways perhaps even more disagreeable army, composed mostly of German speakers, led by the Holy Roman Emperor himself, Conrad III. And of course, it was not long before the two groups were fighting each other. It was partly to avoid internal conflict, we suppose, that the two armies decided to take different routes to the Holy Land.

Constantinople was the headquarters of the Eastern Empire. It was inhabited by Christians. But they were Eastern Orthodox, not subject to the church of Rome. Emperor Manuel Comnenus may have had mixed feelings about the crusader cause. But he was clear about one thing: he wanted to get rid of this horde of “Latin thugs and barbarians” as quickly as possible. He arranged for them to be ferried across the Bosporus so they could continue their march to Jerusalem. He cautioned them to stick to the longer route along the coast of what is today Turkey. Cutting through the heart of Anatolia was likely to bring conflict with the Seljuk Turks.

The French followed his instruction. The Germans took their chances overland and were almost wiped out by the Turks at the battle of Dorylaeum. Many Germans who weren’t killed were taken captive and sold into slavery. Finally, the ragtag remnants of both German and French forces arrived in the Holy Land. At the time, Damascus, was perhaps the only major city in the area that might have been a useful ally and perhaps a refuge and source of supplies. Nevertheless, the crusaders decided to attack it. The assault failed. John Julius Norwich described what happened next:

"There is no part of the Syrian desert more shattering to the spirit than that dark-gray, featureless expanse of sand and basalt that lies between Damascus and Tiberias. Retreating across it in the height of the Arabian summer, the remorseless sun and scorching desert wind full in their faces, harried incessantly by mounted Arab archers and leaving a stinking trail of dead men and horses in their wake, the Crusaders must have felt despair heavy upon them.

The crusader spirit dimmed. But the flame did not die out. There came a Third Crusade…and then a Fourth Crusade (in which the crusaders, led by a blind Venetian doge attacked Constantinople)…and a Children’s Crusade (in which thousands of children were sent off…and later starved, or sold into slavery…nobody knows for sure what happened to them)."

In all, there were 8 crusades – all unnecessary, pointless, and fruitless. Why so many? Why any at all …then or now? That’s what the ‘Report from Iron Mountain’ explains…Stay tuned."

o

Joel’s Note: Meanwhile, back to the bond market meltdown… Dan sent us another fugly chart this morning. Sensitive readers may wish to avert their eyes…

Click image for larger size.

“AGG is the ETF that tracks the Bloomberg Aggregate Bond Index,” explains Dan, “the biggest bond ETF and a proxy of all bonds (government, corporate, Fannie, Freddie, Ginnne, asset backed securities, mortgage backed securities, and commercial mortgage backed securities).” Unlike TLT, which we featured in this space yesterday and which is only long-term government bonds, AGG hasn't made a new multi-year low. “Not yet,” adds Dan.

As noted above, rates have lately spiked to their highest levels since 2007… right before a Niagara of subprime mortgage defaults swamped the markets, dragging down some of the nation’s largest banks and financial institutions along with it. So, what’s pushing up rates this time? Dan, again…

“Some say it's fiscal policy. The national debt went up over $250 billion...on Tuesday alone! The Feds will have to sell more debt at higher rates...and finance old debt at higher rates. It's the fiscal 'doom loop' that makes net interest expense the single highest line item in the budget. Meanwhile falling stock, house, and bond prices reduce federal tax revenues...for bigger deficits. And all of that BEFORE a recession...which our Doom Index is saying is nigh. Stay safe. And watch your wallet.”

Unlike government statistics – which are routinely “revised” after the fact, and which vainly attempt to capture esoteric, egg-headed nonsense anyway – BPR’s Doom Index 2.0 actually measures real world indicators… things like rig counts, oil tanker counts, shipping container activity, commercial real estate, etc… to get a feel for how the real economy is doing. Again, that’s real people, exchanging real goods and services in the real world economy."

- https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/

o

Freely download

"Report From Iron Mountain On The 

Possibility And Desirability Of Peace"

here: https://www.1215.org/

"Russia - Ukraine War Update 10/5/23"

Full screen recommended.
Redacted, 10/5/23
"Warning! Something BIG Is Happening

 In Ukraine, Putin Stays Quiet"

"Something big is about to happen in Ukraine. Is Putin about to launch a pre-winter offensive now that Ukraine has exhausted all of its resources? Logistical signs are showing newly built railway tracks and large troop movements on the Russian side. Also multiple reports over the past 48 hours show an increased number of young Ukrainian men racing to get the hell out of Ukraine."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/
o

Full screen recommended.

Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 10/5/23

"How Much Longer Can Ukraine Last? 

w/Prof Jeffrey Sachs"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Full screen recommended.

Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 10/5/23

"American Neocons and Their Global Community 

w/Alastair Crooke fmr British Ambassador"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Shopping With Danno At Kroger!"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures With Danno, 10/5/23

"Shopping With Danno At Kroger! Coffee, Soups, 

Baking Items, Crackers, Chips, Laundry Detergent!"

"We are at Kroger and taking advantage of some of these different sales this week. Shop with me as we show all the greatest deals and items everyone should be buying before the prices go up again!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Gregory Mannarino, "AM/PM 10/5/23"

'It's a Big Club and you ain't in it.

You and I are not in the Big Club."

- George Carlin

All you get, Good Citizen, are the consequences...

Gregory Mannarino, AM 10/5/23

"The FED Has Intervened! 

Bank Crisis, Credit Crisis, Stock Market Hyperbubble, More!"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Gregory Mannariino, PM 10/5/23

"Be Ready For The Biggest Housing Crash In World History!"

-  https://traderschoice.net/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Addison Wiggin, "The Great Complacency, Still"

"The Great Complacency, Still"

By Addison Wiggin

“When Americans are faced with the prospect that they can never earn their way to wealth, they have two choices: to rebel against the system, or to settle into depressed complacency.”

- Ben Shapiro

"Not too long after we sat down to write this yesterday afternoon, all the cell phones in our house sounded an alarm at once. But, you already know that. Every cell phone in America went off at 2:20pm EST, ringing with a mass message from The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The aim? The government wants to be sure it can “effectively warn the public about emergencies, particularly those on the national level.” “Spooky,” Henry wrote from an Amtrak train headed north from New York up north to New England. “The government is tapped into all our devices.” He described the whole train’s momentary confusion at the collective notification. Then people settled back into complacency within moments. 

The bond market sounded a short burst alarm of its own yesterday. Yields on the 10-year Treasury spiked to 4.9% at 1:30pm. The 30-yr broke through 5%. Both are the highest yields on offer since 2007, just prior to the Panic of ‘08. In part the spike was in response to Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy getting ousted from his seat. That and bond traders are betting the government will have an increasingly difficult time funding its ventures in the mid-to-long term and demanding higher returns for their willingness to go along with the charade.

Rising yields, and by extension, falling prices on the 10-year typically result in an immediate sell-off in stocks.  Dutifully the Dow dropped into negative territory for the year. The last time it flirted with losses was on May 25, 2023. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq both opened trading today at their lowest point since September 26. Both are trying to put on a brave face today. And remain in positive territory year to date. We’ll see how long the green can hold out, right? 

Higher Treasuries yields typically portend recession, too. Yesterday, stocks dependent on consumer spending took a beating with both Carnival and AirBnB shedding a couple bucks each. 

As you know, we’re working on a video project we call The Great American Shell Game. In it we identify several trends in place you’ll want to pay attention to. A ‘shell game’ is a swindling trick in which a small pea or coin is quickly shifted from under one to another of three walnut shells or cups to fool the spectator trying to guess its location. It’s one of the oldest and most widespread forms of ‘sleight of hand’.

So it goes with The Great American Shell Game. With the right hand the government and the corporate media want you to look at all “they” are doing to address multiple crises in society. With the left hand are the real causes and effects of these crises, you as a citizen, a voter - even as a normal human being - have to deal with. Your money is always at stake.

We’re concerned that three concurrent trends will develop into full blown future “crises” – and maybe all at the same time. First, Americans are all but tapped out. Their savings from the pandemic and government stimmie-gimmiechecks have gone poof and credit card debt recently ballooned past the $1trillion dollar mark.  We expect consumer stocks like Carnival and AirBnB to continue to be under strain… along with Big Box stores like Home Depot and sporting goods incumbent Dick’s. 

Yet, The Great Complacency (a term we laid claim to in July) continues, business as usual.  Not until the big companies on the S&P 500 start undergoing their own “balance sheet recessions” will soon-to-be retirees start gasping when looking at their own 401(k) balances. That day is, we suspect, closer than your average buy-and-hold, “my financial advisor’s got my back” investor thinks. 

The big retailers we have on our radar are also the ones getting hit in cities all over the country by “smash, grab and go” parties… groups of thugs breaking windows and looting stores in Philadelphia, Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago… even here in Baltimore. It’s not surprising, really. When “consumers” are stretched financially and there’s a high level of economic anxiety bad stuff tends to happen. 

Neither does it take a genius to figure out why there are hundreds of thousands of people on strike, currently.  Autoworkers, writers and actors have grabbed the headlines. But healthcare and hospitality are next. Nearly 80,000 essential workers at Kaiser Permanente may be going on strike as early as today. CVS is experiencing a wave of mysterious no shows from its pharmacists. Tens of thousands of hospitality workers in Las Vegas have voted to walk out. 

The last time “labor” was this emboldened was the late 1970s and early 80s when the US economy was on equally shaky ground.  Throw in a real estate, infrastructure and debt crisis in China… the end of “cheap” as a trade war and reshoring promise to make everything  more expensive… and the most divisive political environment in the U.S. in decades… and you’ve got a global recipe for disaster. 

The election year 2024 promises to be a difficult one… not just for the stock market… but for the economy… and the social fabric of society.  Given the trends in place right now, we believe all bets are off. The ousting of Kevin McCarthy as House Speaker might serve as a fitting microcosm of a greater American issue. “The House is in chaos,” headlines from CNN, Bloomberg and MSNBC screamed this morning. It’s true, but the real trouble is, it’s not just the House of Representatives. 

Since reaching an adult state of consciousness, I’ve been suspicious of the Rove “wedge issue” strategies used to win elections because of their base appeal to tribalism. But, this year... going into the primaries, then the election itself, it’s going to be explosive and violent, no matter who gains the upper hand. From what I can see, the strategists like it this way, diabolically. Unfortunately, it’ll be the 80% of the people in the middle – the ones who don’t really give a crotte as long as they’re doing fairly well and can take care of those they love... they’re the ones who pay the price for the power lust of a very small minority of our population. 

The Constitution helps. The writers saw a lot of this political shenanigans in Europe and ancient history. They built some very good guardrails. So we have that going for us. I only wish they foresaw career politicians and put stricter term requirements or limits in Clause 3.  Like you, I’m assuming, I believe the political divide in this country is so irrational and nonsensical, politics itself is the greatest threat to our security and prosperity. 

Politics have always been retarded in the sense that the messaging has to be reduced to the lowest common denominator to reach and cajole the widest number of people. This year feels like a turning point in US history to someplace new and uncharted. It’s hard to forecast where that’ll be. So it goes. It’s the nature of politics going back to Cain and Abel.

McCarthy is the first Speaker of the House to be formally removed from the post in US History. Now, we’re in uncharted territory indeed. To which, we repeat these ominous words from the economic historian Niall Ferguson: "This decade will not be identical to the 1970s. Now will it replicate the experience of the 1920s or the 1940s. But the idea that we can recover from the fiscal and monetary excesses of the past three years without economic pain - at a time of political polarization and geopolitical conflict - seems historically implausible."

“For economists,” a report from Bloomberg Economics opines, “the past few years have provided a lesson in humility. Confronted with the seismic shocks from the pandemic and Ukraine war, forecasting models that worked fine in good times have now completely missed the mark.” To Bloomberg’s list, we’d add the disruption of Bidenomics synthetically engineering a boom in EVs and chip stocks and the uncertain future of the rapid invasion by Artificial Intelligence (AI) in markets, economics or society. 

We’re not expecting FEMA to use their all-phones emergency alert to signal a top in the stock market or the beginning of a serious recession, or another “insurrection” for that matter.  Most people would likely return to their full state of complacency soon after the alarm, anyway. Frankly, it’s up to you and me, each of us, individually, to recognize the trends and be prepared for the actual emergency when it does arrive. ‘Cuz you know it’s going to.

Sauve qui peut..."

- https://thewigginsessions.com/

"Sauve qui peut..."

Save himself who can, run for your life!

Jeremiah Babe, "Banks Are Bracing For Impact, You Should Too"

Jeremiah Babe, 10/4/23

"Banks Are Bracing For Impact, You Should Too"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

The Car Market Crash Has Already Begun And It Will Trigger A 50% Price Wipe Out This Fall

Full screen recommended.

Epic Economist 10/4/23

"The Car Market Crash Has Already Begun And 

It Will Trigger A 50% Price Wipe Out This Fall"

"Did you know that some new car models have already seen prices collapse by 42% this year¿ That’s what a recent Forbes report has exposed. What we’re seeing right now in the auto market is the classic narrative of an asset class that went up in price too fast, resulting in a massive bubble. However, even as work stoppages disrupt production at some car plants, dealerships still have an oversupply of vehicles, and demand is simply not there anymore. That’s why they’re cutting prices faster than at any other period in the past ten years. New cars, used cars, and electric vehicles are all facing a reckoning right now, signaling that the feared car market crash is finally starting to accelerate. 

The unprecedented challenges caused by the pandemic, such as factory shutdowns and chip shortages, are behind us by now. Car production is up, and new car inventory has rebounded from supply chain-induced shortages, with popular models having over 90 days of supply at dealer lots. Used car prices fell by 6.6% in the previous month, and lost over 20% of their value since mid-2022. Without so many choking points interrupting manufacturing and delivery of vehicles in 2023, the conditions that supported record car price growth in the past few years are no longer in place. That means balance is finally being restored. As of August 31, the last time this type of data was updated, the average transaction price of a new vehicle had dropped by almost $2,000, to $48,165, according to Kelley Blue Book, a Cox Automotive company. That was the largest decrease in the past decade, and analysts say this is just the beginning. 

Today, domestic car inventories are almost 30% higher than they were just a couple of years ago when lots only had 60 days of supply available. In fact, Cox data shows that three vehicle segments had average transaction prices below $30,000 in August – compact cars, subcompact cars, and subcompact SUVs. Meanwhile, average luxury vehicle prices fell to $64,107, declining by more than 4%, since the start of the year. 

These figures may seem small, but they are actually remarkable considering that some experts were expecting a 5% gain in the second half of the year. They indicate that new car prices are no longer climbing, but starting their descending journey. The only thing preventing a full-blown crash at this moment is interest rates. They may determine how fast new vehicle prices will drop in the coming months. To truly understand the depth of this crisis, let’s look at the dire state of the U.S. electric vehicle market. 

A new analysis by CarGuru shared by Forbes shows that EV prices are dropping like a rock. So far in 2023, the Tesla Model S faced a 42.1% price crash, from $73,751 to $42,669. 2023 is being the most devastating year for electric cars in terms of falling prices. Cox reported that the average transaction price for a new electric vehicle is down 20% already, from $66,390 to $53,438. It’s important to remember that a year ago, demand for these cars was so high that prices hit a peak of almost $75,000. 

In the coming months, you should prepare to see even more inventory at dealerships, and even deeper price cuts. As a consumer, you should stay informed with news to make clever decisions when purchasing a new car. Now, we’re still in the calm before the storm. It is time to wait. Conditions are combining to spark the biggest car market crash of our lifetime, and we can’t miss that opportunity when it finally happens."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: Deuter, "Along the High Ridges"

Full screen recommended.

Deuter, "Along the High Ridges"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"Galaxies don't normally look like this. NGC 6745 actually shows the results of two galaxies that have been colliding for only hundreds of millions of years. Just off the above digitally sharpened photograph to the lower right is the smaller galaxy, moving away. The larger galaxy, pictured above, used to be a spiral galaxy but now is damaged and appears peculiar. Gravity has distorted the shapes of the galaxies.

Although it is likely that no stars in the two galaxies directly collided, the gas, dust, and ambient magnetic fields do interact directly. In fact, a knot of gas pulled off the larger galaxy on the lower right has now begun to form stars. NGC 6745 spans about 80 thousand light-years across and is located about 200 million light-years away."

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120930.html

The Poet: William Stafford, ”Today”

”Today”

“The ordinary miracles begin. Somewhere

a signal arrives: “Now,” and the rays

come down. A tomorrow has come. Open

your hands, lift them: morning rings

all the doorbells; porches are cells for prayer.

Religion has touched your throat. Not the same now,

you could close your eyes and go on full of light.

And it is already begun, the chord

that will shiver glass, the song full of time

bending above us. Outside, a sign:

a bird intervenes; the wings tell the air,

“Be warm.” No one is out there, but a giant

has passed through town, widening streets, touching

the ground, shouldering away the stars.”

- William Stafford

“Mirror Neurons: Mirrors In Your Brain”

“Mirror Neurons: Mirrors In Your Brain”

by Casey Kazan

“A recent paradigm-shattering discovery in neuroscience shows how our minds share actions, emotions, and experience - what we commonly call "the monkey see, monkey do" experience. When we see someone laugh, cry, show disgust, or experience pain, in some sense, we share that emotion. When we see someone in distress, we share that distress. When we see a great actor, musician or sportsperson perform at the peak of their abilities, it can feel like we are experiencing just something of what they are experiencing.

Only recently, however, with the discover of mirror neurons, has it become clear just how this powerful sharing of experience is realized within the human brain. In the early 1990's Giacomo Rizzolatti and his colleagues at the University of Parma discovered that some neurons had an amazing property: they responded not only when a subject performed a given action, but also when the subject observed someone else performing that same action. These results had a deep impact on cognitive neuroscience, leading the the world's leading experts to predict that 'mirror neurons would do for psychology what DNA did for biology'.

Vilayanur Ramachandran is a neurologist at the University of California-San Diego and co-author of "Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind" writes that "Giacomo Rizzolatti at the University of Parma has elegantly explored the properties of neurons- the so-called "mirror" neurons, or "monkey see, monkey do" neurons. His research indicates that any given cell in this region will fire when a test monkey performs a single, highly specific action with its hand: pulling, pushing, tugging, picking up, grasping, etc. In addition, it appears that different neurons fire in response to different actions."

The astonishing fact is that any given mirror neuron will also fire when the monkey in question observes another monkey (or even the experimenter) performing the same action. "With knowledge of these neurons, you have the basis for understanding a host of very enigmatic aspects of the human mind: imitation learning, intentionality, "mind reading," empathy- even the evolution of language." Ramachandran writes.

"Anytime you watch someone else doing something (or even starting to do something), the corresponding mirror neuron might fire in your brain, thereby allowing you to "read" and understand another's intentions, and thus to develop a sophisticated "theory of other minds."

Mirror neurons may also help explain the emergence of language, a problem that has puzzled scholars since the time of Charles Darwin, he adds. "Is language ability based on a specially purposed language organ that emerged suddenly 'out of the blue,' as suggested by Noam Chomsky and his disciples? Or did language evolve from an earlier, gesture-based protolanguage? No one knows for sure, but a key piece of the puzzle is Rizzolatti's observation that the ventral premotor area may be a homologue of "Broca's area"- a brain center associated with the expressive and syntactic aspects of language. Rizzolatti and Michael Arbib of the University of Southern California suggest that mirror neurons may also be involved in miming lip and tongue movements, an ability that may present the crucial missing link between vision and language."

To test his idea, Ramachandran tested four Broca's aphasia patients - individuals with lesions in their Broca's areas. He presented them with the sound of the syllable "da," spliced to a videotape of a person whose lips were actually producing the sound "ba." Normally, people hear the "da" as "ba" - the so-called "McGurk effect" - because vision dominates over hearing. To his surprise, he writes, "we found that the Broca's patients did not experience this illusion; they heard the syllable correctly as 'da.' Even though their lesions were located in the left frontal region of their brains, they had a visual problem- they ignored the lip movements. Our patients also had great difficulty with simple lip reading. This experiment provides a link between Rizzolatti's mirror neurons and the evolution of human language, and thus it calls into question the strictly modular view of language, which is currently popular."

Based on his research, Ramachandran predicted that mirror neurons will do for psychology what DNA did for biology: "they will provide a unifying framework and possibly even explain a host of mental abilities that have hitherto remained mysterious and inaccessible to experiments."

- http://www.dailygalaxy.com/o

o

Related:

"The Mind's Mirror", Excerpts

"For years, such experiences have puzzled psychologists, neuroscientists and philosophers, who've wondered why we react at such a gut level to other people's actions. How do we understand, so immediately and instinctively, their thoughts, feelings and intentions?"

"The mirror neurons could help explain how and why we "read" other people's minds and feel empathy for them. If watching an action and performing that action can activate the same parts of the brain in monkeys- down to a single neuron- then it makes sense that watching an action and performing an action could also elicit the same feelings in people."

"This neural mechanism is involuntary and automatic," he says. "With it we don't have to think about what other people are doing or feeling, we simply know. It seems we're wired to see other people as similar to us, rather than different," Gallese says. "At the root, as humans we identify the person we're facing as someone like ourselves."

Full article is here:

- http://www.apa.org/monitor/oct05/mirror.aspx

"The Definition Of Hell..."

 

The Daily "Near You?"

Rhododendron, Oregon, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Every Day..."

“Every day, I saw more evidence about the evils humankind will inflict on their fellow humans to gain or maintain power. What is more, those who choose not to empathize may enable real monsters. For without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves, we collude with it through our own apathy. If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice; if you choose to identify not only with the powerful, but with the powerless; if you retain the ability to imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have your advantages, then it will not only be your proud families who celebrate your existence, but thousands and millions of people whose reality you have helped transform for the better. We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.”

– J. K. Rowling, Harvard Commencement, June 5, 2008

"'Gaslighting' & Other Important Economic Principles"

"'Gaslighting' & Other Important Economic Principles"

By Addison Wiggin

“If you're yelling you're the one who's lost control of the conversation.”

- Taylor Swift

"In November of 2022, roughly eleven months ago, Merriam-Webster named “Gaslighting” its word of the year. Gaslighting historically referred to extreme psychological manipulation to commit an individual to a psychiatric institution or cause mental illness with the intent to brainwash. The term is derived from a 1944 film titled, interestingly enough, “Gaslight.” The plot, on Wikipedia: “…A nefarious man attempts to trick his new wife into thinking she’s losing her mind, in part by telling her that the gaslights in their home, which dim when he’s in the attic doing dastardly deeds, are not fading at all.”

Gaslighting came to colloquial fame in 2017 when a writer for CNN opined President Donald Trump was “‘gaslighting’ all of us.” Later, in 2021, it was used, also by CNN, to describe Trump’s effort to downplay the events leading up to the January 6 “insurrection.” Somehow from there it became part of teenage online culture and started being used everywhere to indicate when someone persistently lies to you to intentionally change your perception of reality.

My kids might think it’s the other way around, and that their buzzword generation actually came up with the term. Alas, I think they are gaslighting us, too. Further, Taylor Swift released a short film earlier this year called “All too well” demonstrating the mental abuse gaslighting inflicts in a domestic relationship. The National Domestic Violence Hotline describes “gaslighting” as “a legitimate and extremely effective form of emotional abuse.” Swift did for the new hip term what her appearances have recently done for NFL ratings since she started showing up at Kansas City Chiefs games.

In 2023 alone, searches for the word “gaslighting” on the Merriam-Webster site surged 1740%. Now we’re stuck with it. We admit it took us a while, even as its popularity grew, to understand what the “gaslight” meant. Now, we think we get it.

You’ll recall yesterday, we had been reading Marc Faber’s "Gloom Boom & Doom Report" where he methodically outlined the many ways in which the perceived “strength” in the US economy is a statistical mirage. Doing some follow-up research we ran across these back-to-back headlines published in Newsweek a week apart about a month ago:

"‘Bidenomics Is Working,’ Says Joe Biden" (Newsweek 8/28/23)

"‘Bidenomics’ Gaslighting Reveals POTUS’s Impotence in Lead-Up to 2024" (Newsweek 9/8/23)

We felt obligated to dig in and illustrate the vernacular use of the word “gaslight”. Really… how could we not? In a nutshell, Biden set out in July and August to make the case that his economic policies - whom the White House proudly calls ‘Bidenomics’ - are successfully building the post pandemic economy back better from “the middle out and the bottom up.”

In his speeches Biden cleverly contrasts his plan to his opposition who promise to make America great again from the “top down”… Might we call it a repackaged version of Reagan’s trickle-down economics?

Biden’s take suggests his policies are working. The president gave several speeches talking up the successes of his economic policy. But then had to pivot to ransacking his “predecessor” instead. Polls, in fact, reflected some unhappy news for the economic team at 16 Pennsylvania Ave: Voters ain’t buying it.

“There is just one glaring problem [with Bidenomics],” Josh Hammer writes in the second Newsweek piece from above. “It’s all a lie. Biden can try to gaslight the American people and retcon the past few years to his heart’s content, but the evidence is simply overwhelming. The ruse will not work.” The emphasis is our own. According to a CBS poll published in mid-August, “Two-thirds of Americans describe the economy as ‘bad’, while 70% say their paychecks aren’t keeping up with rising prices.”

And you’ll recall we’ve noticed here in the Missive the number of people living “paycheck to paycheck” has been rising at an alarming pace since 2021.

Which brings us back to the “statistical mirage” Dr. Faber dug into for his latest issue. Faber cites Alia Dudum writing at LendingClub: "In July 2023, 61% of U.S. consumers live paycheck to paycheck, unchanged from June 2023, but 2 percentage points higher than July 2022. Generally, more consumers of all income brackets reported living paycheck to paycheck in July 2023 than last year. Now, 78% of consumers earning less than $50,000 a year and 65% of those earning between $50,000 and $100,000 were living paycheck to paycheck in July, both up from a year ago. Of those earning $100,000 or more, only 44% reported living paycheck to paycheck." “These statistics clearly indicate that lower income recipients,” Faber comments, “are hurting more from rising consumer price inflation than higher wage earners.”

A September 12, 2023 essay by Michael Snyder, whom we’ve quoted in these pages on occasion, was titled “The Middle Class Is Increasingly Becoming ‘The Impoverished Class’, and the Poor Are Increasingly Being Pushed Into the Streets.” Snyder wrote last month:

"When the Federal Reserve pumped trillions of dollars into the financial system during the pandemic, most Americans didn’t realize what that would do to them. That money certainly made the wealthy a whole lot wealthier, but it also dramatically increased the cost of living for the rest of us. So now inflation has been rising much faster than paychecks have, and the cost of living has become exceedingly oppressive. In fact, last year we witnessed the largest decline in real median household income in more than a decade …

The official tally is in and it is brutal: Americans suffered the biggest drop in household income in 2022 in a dozen years. Real median household income was $74,580 in 2022, a drop of 2.3 percent from the prior year, the Census Bureau said Tuesday. This is the biggest drop in household income since 2010, when the household income fell 2.6 percent. That means it is worse than the pandemic decline of 2.2 percent. It is the fourth worst year in records going back to 1985."

Agreeing, and then trying to put the middle class’ current bout with inflation and hardship in a historical context, the economic historian Niall Ferguson wrote in an August 13, Bloomberg opinion piece: "This decade will not be identical to the 1970s. Nor will it replicate the experience of the 1920s or the 1940s. But the idea that we can recover from the fiscal and monetary excesses of the past three years without economic pain - at a time of political polarization and geopolitical conflict - seems historically implausible." Unless, that is, you still believe in Santa, the Tooth Fairy - and Goldilocks. Amen.

We haven’t seen any presidential economic speeches recorded since those early ones in September. So it goes..."

- https://thewigginsessions.com

P.P.S. “Retcon” is another word Josh Hammer forced me to look up. According to the Oxford English Dictionary a ‘retcon’ is used by film and tv writers to introduce “a piece of new information that imposes a different interpretation on previously described events, and to facilitate a dramatic plot shift or account for an inconsistency.”

P.P.S. Think you’re being gaslit? Here are some helpful phrases to shut down a gaslighting in any situation (even a political one):

“We remember things differently.”

“If you continue to speak to me like this I’m not engaging.”

“I hear you and that isn’t my experience.”

“I am walking away from this conversation.”

“I am not interested in debating what happened with you.”

*** Of course, we nicked these suggestions from a mental health site on the Internet. If you’re having a serious problem with someone else you suspect is trying to drive you crazy, seek professional help."

- https://thewigginsessions.com/

"Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 10/4/23"

Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 10/4/23

"The End of Zelensky Presidency? w/Scott Ritter"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 10/4/23

"Will the US Own Ukraine? w/Matthew Hoh fmr State Dept"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"How It Really Is

 

Bill Bonner, "Fighting the Fed"

"Fighting the Fed"

A worldwide bond slide, stocks roll over and... 

hey, what's that cracking sound?

by Bill Bonner

"Don't bother calling to say you're leaving alone,

'Cause there's a fool on every corner when you're trying to get home."

~ Rosanne Cash

Poitou, France - "There was no joy on Wall Street yesterday. Little by little, day by day, it is becoming clearer: getting home won’t be easy: ‘Buying the dip’ is not a good idea. Fighting the Fed is a losing proposition. And the Fed is no longer supporting asset prices.

Remember, this is a transition period. It’s hard to get a sense of what is really going on. But nearly three years ago, it looked to us as if the Primary Trend had reversed. We thought we were at the beginning of a major bear market. Stocks and bonds were headed lower. The bond market peaked out in the summer of 2020. Since then US bonds are down more than 15%. But consumer prices are down nearly 20%. So, if you get your principal back now, you’re taking a loss of about 35%.

Worldwide Bond Slide: Here’s Bloomberg on the worldwide bond slide: "Treasuries Selloff Goes Global as Benchmark US Yields Near 5%." "Traders are bracing for 10-year US yields to top 5% for the first time since 2007 after they jumped to 4.85% this week. The correlation between Bloomberg’s gauge of global securities and an index of Treasuries has reached the highest since March 2020. A relentless selloff in US government bonds is sparking tumult across major bond markets, as traders come to grips with the realization that interest rates are likely to remain higher for longer."

As for stocks…it took another 18 months (after bond yields bottomed out), but they finally turned down in the beginning of 2022. At yesterday’s close, Dow investors were about 10% down, in nominal terms. Add the 20% loss of purchasing power and they’re off 30%. These are serious setbacks. "Your first loss is your best loss,” say the old timers. By that they mean that when you see the trend going against you, you should go home as soon as possible.

Higher for Longer: And even CNBC is catching on: "That cracking sound in financial markets isn't the typical kind of break, where one asset class or another fractures and gives way. Instead, this is more a break in a narrative, one that has widespread repercussions. The narrative in question is the one where the Federal Reserve holds interest rates low and everyone on Wall Street gets to enjoy the fruits. That's changing. In its place comes a story in which rates are going to stay higher for longer, an idea Fed officials have tried to get the market to accept and which investors are only now beginning to absorb."

‘Higher for longer’ is causing cracks in many different mirrors. Home buyers, for example, are looking at 30-year fixed-rate mortgages that are butting up against 8%. That’s a big change from the low of 2020, when you could get a 30-year rate of just 2.65%. There must be many people kicking themselves for not locking in that low rate when they had the chance.

Our baseline assumption is that higher interest rates will trigger a financial crisis. But they’ll cause an economic crisis too. Many homeowners with low-rate mortgages can’t afford to sell their houses. They’ve got a sweet deal; they need to hold onto it. Other people – looking at much higher interest payments – can’t afford to buy.

Low Rate Fantasy: Looking at housing as a percentage of earnings, we see it reaching the highest level ever recorded, at 43% of median income. The result? One of the nation’s key industries – housing – goes into hibernation. Pending house sales are the lowest they’ve been since April 2020 – when the country was locked down. And housing starts are running at barely half the level they hit in 1973 – half a century ago, when the country had 120 million fewer people.

But the cracks and crumbling aren't limited to the housing sector. The basic building brick for the whole world’s financial edifice is the US 10-year T-bond. Yesterday, the real yield (adjusted for inflation) on the 10-year rose to 2.27%. That was what it was in January 2009, just after Ben Bernanke began his disastrous ultra-low rate fantasy (as if you could actually make people better off by falsifying the cost of capital!)…the proximate cause of today’s financial distress.

Until Bernanke went off the rails, the US financial system retained at least the appearance of sanity. It could walk and talk, more or less like a normal economy. People remembered where they lived; they could still get home. It cost money (positive interest rates) to borrow back then…which limited debt to what people could afford. But then, after the Fed dragged interest rates below zero, in real terms, the sky was the limit. That is what made the US financial world what it became – 2009-2020 – cloud cuckoo land, where fake capitalists borrowed fake money at fake interest rates in order to make fake profits. Those profits disappear when the whole fake hullabaloo comes to an end. Then, we suddenly sober up, look for our car keys….and try to remember how to get home. Stay tuned..."

- https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/

Dan, I Allegedly, "The IRS is Coming for You"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly 10/4/23

"The IRS is Coming for You"

"The IRS has decided to redefine wealth. Many people in the country that were just considered above average are now considered wealthy and the target for the IRS. We are seeing so many people have problems with their businesses and with getting by."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

John Wilder, "The Big Short – The Next Step Down"

"The Big Short – The Next Step Down"

by John Wilder

“Our investment-strategy was simple. People hate to think about bad things happening so they always underestimate their likelihood.” – "The Big Short"

"I watched "The Big Short" the other night. It’s about the financial system and the shenanigans that led to the near collapse of the Western financial world, but presented with elements of light-hearted comedy, so, of course I enjoyed it. And having Margot Robbie sitting in a bubble bath describing mortgage-backed securities, subprime loans, and credit default swaps while drinking champagne was genius.

The premise of the movie is that several groups of people figured out that the housing market was fraudulent, and that any human with a heartbeat (and, as described in the movie, at least one dog) could borrow enough money to buy a house. Why not? House prices only go up. There have been many people who have done excellent pieces describing the sheer insanity of the housing market and the incestuous relationships between the lenders and rating agencies that kept the party going with cheap money far too long. You can read them, but they don’t feature a picture of Margot Robbie in a bathtub.

In my personal experience, a bank that rhymes with Hells Rarmo offered me a loan for over six times my annual income with only my stated salary as the basis. My response, “You know, I could never afford to pay that back. Why would you offer a loan that big to me?” “I know, but I’m required to tell you about it,” was the answer from the uncomfortable voice on the other end. Even I could see the con from there, especially since they offered to lend me my downpayment.

The next home loan I got (after the collapse, in 2009) required enough personal information from me that I had to hire a proctologist to help me fill out the paperwork. The result of the Great Recession that followed was a retooling of the industry, bankers and people from the ratings agencies went to prison for fraud, and the government decided to create a system of sound money so these sorts of manias were tamed. Okay, you can laugh now, because none of that really happened. The government just shoved so much money down the throats of the banks that they got even richer for manipulating the system in ways that would make Al Capone’s scar twitch.

What I saw during the run up to the disaster is that the economic taint (heh heh, I said taint) from the housing bubble spilled everywhere. The place I noticed it first was that waitresses became worse. Why? During the bubble, everyone upgraded their job, and good, smart waitresses became, (spins wheel) mortgage brokers and realtors. The mark of a really good economy is crappy customer service.

I wrote a couple of weeks back about how I can see this happening in restaurants locally here:

"The Invisible Recession." "People are hurting, and the first thing to cut are the luxuries. Some people take eating out at McDonald’s© as a luxury versus heating up leftover lasagna, and now they’re bringing the lasagna. Garfield® would be proud, but McDonald’s® rarely makes money from cartoon cats.

Add in gasoline prices that are so high they make prescription drugs look cheap, and the squeeze is here. CarMax© just recently announced that they’ve taken a 10% hit last quarter in number of cars sold. People don’t buy cars when they’re worried about choosing between day-old lasagna and a McChicken™ sandwich."

The biggest tension in The Big Short came from the fact that the guys who saw the fraud went all-in. In one case, Micheal Burry put $1.3 billion into “insurance policies” that would pay multiples of the invested amount if the mortgages bonds started collapsing the way that Burry was sure that they would.

Burry made a $1.3 billion bet, and on top of that, he had to pay monthly premiums in the millions to keep the policy in force. Yet, even as the housing market started to fail, the housing bonds weren’t failing. If those bonds didn’t start falling Burry and his fund would be buried. John Maynard Keynes famously said that “The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent,” proving that he was at least occasionally right. They did fail, and Burry made his investors rich, just in the nick of time before his fund became insolvent. Burry (according to rumors) ended up making over $800 million during the financial crisis.

All this brings us to where we are today. I might be wrong, but what I’m seeing everywhere I look are people that are at the end of their rope. The reason? Because we never took the pain and we didn’t clean up the financial system and make it a servant rather than a master. But I have a plan. Maybe Margot Robbie could explain our way out of this one?"

-  https://wilderwealthywise.com/

"Urgent: Do This Today Before 2:20 PM Eastern Time!"

Full screen recommended.

Canadian Prepper, AM 10/4/23

"Urgent: Do This Today Before 2:20 PM Eastern Time!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Emergency Alert Test Sounds Off Today! What You Need To Know!"

Adventures With Danno, AM 10//4/23

"Emergency Alert Test Sounds Off Today! 

What You Need To Know!"

"We are discussing the E.A.T., or Emergency Alarm Test that is occurring all across the United States this afternoon. We discuss what it is and how we need to prepare for the future."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Markets Crushed Today, More Trouble Coming; People Will Cry When They Lose It All"

Jeremiah Babe, 10/3/23

"Markets Crushed Today, More Trouble Coming;

 People Will Cry When They Lose It All"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Gerald Celente, "Trends Journal" 10/3/23

Strong language alert!

Gerald Celente, Trends Journal 10/3/23

"Markets Crashing; Gold Down; Oil Up: What's Next"

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

- https://trendsjournal.com

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: 2002, "Breathing Light"

Full screen recommended.

2002, "Breathing Light"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"Is this one galaxy or two? The jumble of stars, gas, and dust that is NGC 520 is now thought to incorporate the remains of two separate disk galaxies. A defining component of NGC 520 - as seen in great detail in the featured image from the Hubble Space Telescope - is its band of intricately interlaced dust running vertically down the spine of the colliding galaxies. A similar looking collision might be expected in a few billion years when our disk Milky Way Galaxy to collides with our large-disk galactic neighbor Andromeda (M31).

The collision that defines NGC 520 started about 300 million years ago. Also known as Arp 157, NGC 520 lies about 100 million light years distant, spans about 100 thousand light years, and can be seen with a small telescope toward the constellation of the Fish (Pisces). Although the speeds of stars in NGC 520 are fast, the distances are so vast that the battling pair will surely not change its shape noticeably during our lifetimes."

- https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210907.html