"3 Shocking Truths Most People Don't Know About Money in Bank Accounts"

"3 Shocking Truths Most People 

Don't Know About Money in Bank Accounts"

by Nick Giambruno

"Henry Ford once astutely observed that a revolution would occur overnight if people truly understood the banking and monetary system. That’s because modern banking is an elaborate illusion - one that lulls people into a false sense of security… until it’s too late. Large banks can fail within hours, and life savings can vanish overnight. The US banking system is particularly vulnerable.

So, why do so many people place their confidence - and life savings - into such a fragile system? It’s because they don’t understand three fundamental truths about modern banking:

#1. The money isn’t yours.
#2. The money isn’t actually there.
#3. The money isn’t really money.

Truth #1: The Money Isn’t Yours: Many people are shocked to learn they don’t actually own the money in their bank accounts. Once you deposit money, it’s no longer your personal property - it legally belongs to the bank. And they can do whatever they want with it. What you do own is simply a promise from the bank - an IOU -to pay you back. In reality, depositing money is the same as giving the bank an unsecured loan, often with little or no interest to compensate you for the risk. It’s a fantastic deal for the bank - and a terrible one for you.

That’s why a bank deposit is not the same as cash in hand. Yet most people wrongly treat the two as equivalent. Worse, banks can freeze "your" money at the push of a button, often for vague or arbitrary reasons. Maybe you bought something the bank didn’t like. Or perhaps you said something "politically incorrect" on social media. Don’t be surprised if your account gets frozen - or worse.

Take PayPal, for example. They once floated the idea of charging users $2,500 for spreading so-called "misinformation." Expect to see more of this behavior from banks and financial institutions in the future. Because if your money can be frozen or seized on a whim… it was never really yours to begin with.

Truth #2: The Money Isn’t Actually There: The money you think is in your bank account… doesn’t actually exist. Banks don’t keep physical cash in vaults for each depositor. They don’t even hold enough digital funds to cover a small fraction of withdrawals. In fact, during the COVID mass psychosis, the US government removed reserve requirements - meaning banks no longer need to keep any funds on hand for withdrawals.

So, where does all the money go? Behind the scenes, banks use "your" money to place risky bets on speculative investments. They’re gambling with your life savings- often recklessly. And if just a small percentage of depositors showed up to withdraw their money? Most banks would be in serious trouble… because the money simply isn’t there. This slimy practice is called fractional reserve banking - and yes, it’s completely legal. But that doesn’t make it any less fraudulent in nature. Imagine if other industries operated this way.

Picture a car dealership or jewelry store running a "fractional reserve" model - offering 10 times more claims on cars or diamonds than they actually have in inventory. It would be laughably obvious fraud. Yet that’s exactly how modern banking operates. It closely resembles a Ponzi scheme - one that depends entirely on the illusion that everyone’s money is available… when it’s not.

Truth #3: The Money Isn’t Really Money: Most people use currency every day but rarely stop to ask: What is money, really? It’s like asking a fish, "What is water?" The fish doesn’t notice… until something goes wrong. Money is simply a good - like any other in the economy. And understanding what makes something "good money" is actually pretty straightforward. You don’t need to study complex equations or economic theory - despite what academics and media elites might claim.

At its core, money is just a tool for storing and exchanging value—a way to send value through time and space. Think of money as a claim on human time. It’s stored energy or stored life. Yet today, most people blindly accept whatever paper or digital scrips their governments hand them and call it "money." But money doesn’t need to come from the government. That’s a myth. It’s like asking someone in the old Soviet Union, "Where do shoes come from?" They’d say, "The government makes them - who else would?" That same mindset exists today - but with money.

Government-issued currency is a terrible store of value. It’s easy to produce, its supply is unlimited, and it’s heavily manipulated for political purposes. Let’s put it another way. Imagine Al Capone forced his neighborhood to use pieces of paper with his signature as money - and threatened violence against anyone who didn’t comply. That’s essentially what governments do with fiat currencies. The reality is: fake money comes from governments. Real money emerges from the market.

Throughout history, people have used everything from seashells and salt to glass beads, cattle, and even cigarettes in prisons as money. But one form has stood the test of time - gold.

For over 5,000 years, gold has been mankind’s most enduring form of money. Gold didn’t win the ultimate competition to become the world’s best form of money by accident or because some politicians decreed it. Instead, it became money because countless individuals throughout history and across many different civilizations subjectively came to the same conclusion: gold is money. It resulted from a market process of people looking for the best way to store and exchange value.

So, why did they go to gold? What makes gold attractive as money? Here’s why. Gold has a set of unique characteristics that make it suitable as money. Gold is durable, divisible, consistent, convenient, scarce, and most importantly, the "hardest" of all physical commodities. In other words, gold is "hard to produce" relative to existing stockpiles and is the one physical commodity most resistant to inflation of its supply, which helps make it a good store of value - an essential function of money. That’s what gives gold its superior monetary properties.

Conclusion: The banking system is a fragile illusion - one that could collapse at any moment, wiping out the savings of millions who wrongly trust it. That trust hinges on people not understanding three simple truths:

#1. The money isn’t yours.
#2. The money isn’t actually there.
#3. The money isn’t really money.

Here’s the bottom line. The banking system is a mile-high house of cards. And it could come crashing down at any time."

- https://internationalman.com/

Bill Bonner, "Mind The Gap"

"Mind The Gap"

by Bill Bonner

Youghal, Ireland - "On Monday, White House advisor Kevin Hassett stoked rumors that the president will ‘pause’ the tariffs to give nations a chance to come to terms with the Trump Team. Stocks shot up…appearing, for a while, to reverse the downward trend. And again, yesterday morning, it looked like ‘the bottom was in.’ But then, The Donald put to rest any lingering hope that he is a reasonable man. CNN:

"President Donald Trump is set to impose an astounding 104% in levies across all Chinese imports on Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced on Tuesday…China was already set to see tariffs increase by 34% on Wednesday as part of Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs package.

But the president tacked on another 50% after Beijing didn’t back off its promise to impose 34% retaliatory tariffs on US goods by noon Tuesday, adding an additional 84% in duties.US stocks, which soared Tuesday morning, began moving lower off Leavitt’s comments. By 3 p.m. ET the Dow, Nasdaq and S&P 500 were all in negative territory."

Leavitt: “President Trump has a spine of steel, and he will not break.” The ‘spine of steel’ got hammered into its present shape by toady ‘advisors’ — prominently, Pete Navarro. According to press reports, others insiders preferred to use tariffs as a bargaining tool. But Navarro is not really interested in a way to encourage free trade. Navarro: “To those world leaders who, after decades of cheating, are suddenly offering to lower tariffs - know this: that’s just the beginning,” he wrote."

‘The beginning of what,’ we might wonder? Nothing good, is our guess. Elon Musk says Navarro is ‘truly a moron… dumber than a sack of bricks.’ Musk: “What he says is demonstrably false.”

Elon is probably right about that. Still, it is a helluva thing for White House insiders to say in public. Besides, Navarro’s tariffs are the centerpiece of Trump’s economic policy. If the architect is a moron, what does that make the builder? Why is Musk on the team? Musk is the biggest backer…and now a prominent part…of the Trump Team. With his support, Trump and Navarro have up-ended the more-or-less free trade system that has lifted more people out of poverty than any economic policy in history. In China alone, some 800 million people have been brought into the modern economy in a single generation, with standards of living now almost comparable to those in Europe or the US.

Navarro misunderstands this phenomenon in simpleton terms: "The US cumulative trade deficits in goods from 1976 - the year the chronic deficits began - to 2024 have transferred over $20 trillion of American wealth into foreign hands. That’s more than 60% of US GDP in 2024. Foreign interests have taken over vast swaths of US farmland, housing, tech companies, and even part of our food supply."

The US transferred real wealth? Not exactly. The foreigners gave us cars, T-shirts, gizmos and gadgets. That was real wealth. What did we give them in return? Debt securities - dollars (bearer notes)…and Treasuries. That’s what a deficit means. If we had given them real output, of real value equal to what they gave us, there wouldn’t be a trade deficit. Instead, we gave them output of less value than what they gave us…leaving us with a deficit and them with a surplus. This gap was filled with dollars. They gave us things of real value. We gave them I.O.Us…

As we discussed yesterday, Trump’s advisors take the volume of the trade deficit as a measure of “cheating.” If a country is giving us more than we give it, it is ‘ripping us off,’ they say. This claptrap is typical of the ‘blame someone else’ approach that works so well in politics, but never in economics.

But by this formula, the US was a cheater for the 100 years - roughly from the 1870s to the 1970s. It ripped off the rest of the world by sending it tractors, tanks, oil, food, clothes, movies - you name it. In return, it received its trade surplus in the form of gold. That’s why the US has more gold than any other nation.

But then, something changed. What? How can you explain a complete turnabout… wherein Americans went from being the world’s largest exporters to its biggest chumps? The fault, dear reader, was not in our stars, nor in our neighbors, but in ourselves. What really happened was that the US changed the international money system.

After 1971, America was still the world’s largest exporter…but it was exporting its new, gold-free paper dollars (and other debt instruments), not real goods. The US produces dollars (bearer notes) as well as long-term Treasury bonds. These are much easier to manufacture than automobiles or underwear.

Elon Musk produces real goods. A machine that drills huge holes. A car that is now a worldwide leader. A spacecraft program capable of rescuing NASA astronauts. A satellite system that allows communications all over the world. He’s built a worldwide empire of real companies producing real things (though perhaps grossly over-valued in the US by investors). He understands how a real economy works. What he doesn’t understand is politics. And Navarro? What does he know? Does he know anything at all? Musk: “He ain’t built s#!%.” More to come…"

- https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/

Dan, I Allegedly, "The Dark Side of AI - Weaponized and Out of Control"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, AM 4/9/25

"The Dark Side of AI - 

Weaponized and Out of Control"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Gregory Mannarino, "Situation Critical: 'Downstream Effect', Liquidity Crisis Worsens"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 4/9/25

"Situation Critical: 'Downstream Effect', 

Liquidity Crisis Worsens"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Canadian Prepper, "It's Over! Global Meltdown Is Here! Silver And World War 3"

Full screen recommended.

Canadian Prepper, 4/9/25

"It's Over! Global Meltdown Is Here!

 Silver And World War 3"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Jeremiah Babe, "Black Swan 80% Market Crash? Credit Crisis Nightmare"

Jeremiah Babe, 4/8/25

"Black Swan 80% Market Crash? 

Credit Crisis Nightmare"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: Peder B. Helland, "Unknown Lands"

Full screen recommended. Wonderful!

Peder B. Helland, "Unknown Lands"

Beautiful fantasy music ("Unknown Lands" ) 

Be kind to yourself, enjoy this relaxing music with ethereal

 voices, cello and piano while you let your thoughts wander.

"A Look to the Heavens"

"Sculpted by stellar winds and radiation, a magnificent interstellar dust cloud by chance has assumed this recognizable shape. Fittingly named the Horsehead Nebula, it is some 1,500 light-years distant, embedded in the vast Orion cloud complex.

About five light-years "tall", the dark cloud is cataloged as Barnard 33 and is visible only because its obscuring dust is silhouetted against the glowing red emission nebula IC 434. Stars are forming within the dark cloud. Contrasting blue reflection nebula NGC 2023, surrounding a hot, young star, is at the lower left. The gorgeous featured image combines both narrowband and broadband images."

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap150513.html

"This Is How Easy It Is..."

 

"Problems?"

Problems? "Dig you way out," they said...

"Nike And Other Major Retailers Are In Deep Deep Trouble And You’re Paying For It"

Full screen recommended.

Epic Economist, 4/8/25

"Nike And Other Major Retailers Are In 

Deep Deep Trouble And You’re Paying For It"

"Imagine it’s back-to-school season in America. You head into Walmart to grab a pair of sneakers for your kid. Maybe some Nikes or Adidas. But when you check the price tag, you freeze. That $80 pair now costs $115. What happened? In one word: tariffs. Specifically, Donald Trump’s new trade war - an aggressive tariff strategy hitting imports from dozens of countries. The headlines focus on China, but the real shock? A nearly 35% tariff on footwear from Indonesia, and up to 49% on shoes from Vietnam - where most of your favorite brands actually make their products. But this story goes way deeper than sneaker prices. It’s about unraveling the global economy, igniting trade wars, punishing working-class Americans - all while promising to make America “great” again. So who’s actually winning here? And who’s left paying the price? Let’s break it down. 

First - What is a tariff? And who really pays it? A tariff is a tax. A fee that the U.S. government charges when goods enter the country. But the foreign government doesn’t pay it. American companies do. Let’s say Nike makes shoes in Indonesia. When those shoes arrive at the Port of Los Angeles, Nike now has to pay up to 35% of their declared value in tariffs to U.S. Customs. That money goes to the U.S. Treasury. And what does Nike do with that cost? They pass it on to you. Through retail markups. Through higher prices. You pay the tariff - not China, not Indonesia, not Vietnam. You. It’s a clever way to impose taxes without calling them taxes. Tariffs can sometimes protect local industries. But they can also become a tool of political performance - especially during election cycles.

The origins: how we got here This shift didn’t happen overnight. For decades, the U.S. promoted free trade as the engine of global economic growth. The logic was simple: let every country specialize in what it does best, lower the cost of goods, and everyone wins. This created an intricate web of global supply chains - where a sneaker designed in Oregon might be assembled in Vietnam, using rubber from Malaysia, cotton from India, and dyes from China. It worked. Sort of. Prices dropped. Corporate profits soared. China became the workshop of the world. And countries like Vietnam and Indonesia rapidly developed. But American factories closed. Union jobs vanished. And millions of workers were left behind. That economic pain, particularly in the Rust Belt, laid the foundation for Trump’s “America First” agenda. 

The reality behind your sneakers: Over 97% of shoes and clothes sold in America are imported. Most from countries with low labor costs and established manufacturing hubs: Vietnam, Indonesia, Bangladesh. Nike alone produces about 50% of its shoes in Vietnam, and a massive share in Indonesia. Adidas, Puma, and countless other brands follow the same pattern. So when Trump’s tariffs hit, it wasn’t just a strike against foreign countries - it was a gut-punch to the entire U.S. retail sector. A running shoe that cost $150 might now cost $220. A $26 kid’s shoe could hit $40+. These aren’t hypotheticals. These are forecasts by the Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America.

Who feels it the most? Working-class families. Parents. Students. Seniors on fixed incomes. It’s a silent tax - baked into the price tag. Most Americans won’t even realize why things are suddenly more expensive. Trump’s “reciprocal tariffs” - what they really mean On April 3rd, Trump unveiled a massive tariff package targeting 90+ nations. He called them “reciprocal tariffs” - meaning if a country imposes a 30% duty on American goods, the U.S. will now do the same to them. Sounds fair, right? But trade isn’t a zero-sum game. Many of these countries are developing nations who offer cheap labor - that’s why U.S. companies manufacture there in the first place. 

Here are the new tariffs: Vietnam: 46% on footwear Cambodia: 49% Bangladesh: 37% Indonesia: ~35% These countries were once seen as alternatives to China. When Trump’s first trade war with Beijing erupted, manufacturers diversified. They spread their risk. Now, they’re being punished again. The fallout? The stock market reacted instantly: Nike: -10% Adidas: -11% Walmart, Amazon, Target: all down 5–10% Investors knew what it meant - rising prices, shrinking margins, and falling demand. Who are the winners here? Trump says: American workers. He wants to bring jobs back home. Rebuild factories. Revitalize the Rust Belt. But here’s the uncomfortable truth: America doesn’t have the infrastructure to make shoes or clothes at scale. The supply chains are global. The raw materials aren’t here. And even if we built those factories? They’d be automated. Fewer jobs, more machines."

- https://www.youtube.com/

Gerald Celente, "You Hate Genocide? You Are An Anti-Semite, Heil Amerika, We'll Put You In Jail"

Strong Language Alert!

Gerald Celente, 4/8/25

"You Hate Genocide? You Are An Anti-Semite, 

Heil Amerika, We'll Put You In Jail"

"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:

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Cold, hard, brutal absolute truth...

The Daily "Near You?"

Lancaster, South Carolina, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Helpless People"

"Helpless People"

“Almost all Americans have had an intense school experience which occupied their entire youth, an experience during which they were drilled thoroughly in the culture and economy of the well-schooled greater society, in which individuals have been rendered helpless to do much of anything except watch television or punch buttons on a keypad.

Before you begin to blame the childish for being that way and join the chorus of those defending the general imprisonment of adults and the schooling by force of children because there isn’t any other way to handle the mob, you want to at least consider the possibility that we’ve been trained in childishness and helplessness for a reason. And that reason is that helpless people are easy to manage.

Helpless people can be counted upon to act as their own jailers because they are so inadequate to complex reality they are afraid of new experience. They’re like animals whose spirits have been broken. Helpless people take orders well, they don’t have minds of their own, they are predictable, they won’t surprise corporations or governments with resistance to the newest product craze, the newest genetic patent - or by armed revolution. Helpless people can be counted on to despise independent citizens and hence they act as a fifth column in opposition to social change in the direction of personal sovereignty.”

- John Taylor Gatto,

“Some Reflections on the Equivalencies 

Between Forced Schooling and Prison”

- http://karendecoster.com/

Sadly, this website is gone. And so it is…

o

Big Brother & The Holding Company, 

"Heartache People"

"Hope In a Time of Hopelessness"

"Hope In a Time of Hopelessness" 

by Washingtons Blog

"Hope has two beautiful daughters. Their names are anger and courage;

anger at the way things are, and courage 

to see that they do not remain the way they are."

- Augustine of Hippo

"Several long-time activists have told me recently they are overwhelmed, worried, and think that we may be losing the struggle. One very smart friend asked me if there is any basis for hope.

Hope is an act of will, not a passive mood. Admittedly, things are easier when circumstances bring hope to us, and we can just receive the hopeful and inspiring news. But if we care about winning, we have to be able to decide to have hope even when outer circumstances aren't so positive.

I have children who are counting on me to leave them with a reasonably safe and sane planet. As I've said elsewhere, I care too much about my kids and my freedom to be afraid. I care enough about them that it gets my heart beating, connects me to something bigger than myself, and that gives me courage, even when the chips are down. 

If I allowed myself to lose hope about exposing falsehoods, about protecting our freedom and building a hopeful future, I would be dropping the ball for my kids. I would be condemning them to a potentially very grey world where bigger and worse things may happen, where their liberties and joys are wholly stripped away, where every ounce of vitality is beholden to joyless and useless tasks.

Many of us may be motivated by other things besides kids, and only you can know what that is. But we each must dig down deep, and connect with our most powerful motivations to win the struggle for freedom and truth.

I don't know about you, but I don't have the luxury of giving up hope. When I get depressed, overwhelmed or exhausted by the stunning acts of savagery, treason, and disinformation carried out by the imperialists, or the willful ignorance of far too many Americans, I will myself into finding some reason to have hope. Because the struggle for life and liberty is too important for me to give up." 

- http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/

○

"Just Because..."

 

"The US Is In Rapid Decline, Here Is The Full Breakdown Of What's Happening"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 4/8/25

"The US Is In Rapid Decline, 

Here Is The Full Breakdown Of What's Happening"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Market Data Center, Live Updates:

- https://www.marketwatch.com/market-data 

"How It Really Is"

 

"Google Fires Over 15,000 Workers as Several Offices Close Down"

Full screen recommended.

Market Gains, 4/8/25

"Google Fires Over 15,000 Workers

as Several Offices Close Down"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Full screen recommended.

Market Gains, 4/8/25

"Over 200,000 Workers Just Got 

Fired as Job Market Gets Worse"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Dan, I Allegedly, "Experts Urgent Warning - Are You Ready?"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, AM 4/8/25

"Experts Urgent Warning - Are You Ready?"

"The recession is here, and I’m breaking down everything the experts aren’t telling you! From Mark Cuban’s warnings to a must-have survival checklist by Kain Health, this video covers how to prepare for economic uncertainty. Plus, we’re diving into rising homeowner insurance costs, delays in teens getting driver’s licenses, and why businesses like breweries and pizza chains are struggling. I also share insights from top CEOs and economic leaders who believe this downturn is just the beginning. Make sure you’re ready—stock up on essentials, review your insurance policies, and have a plan in place for whatever comes next. You’ll also hear about surprising industry trends from the National Association of Broadcasters Show in Las Vegas and why preparation is key in today’s economy."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Bill Bonner, "Harvard Men"

Harvard University, Cambridge Massachusetts

"Harvard Men"

by Bill Bonner

“In every disaster throughout American history, 

there always seems to be a man from Harvard in the middle of it.”

- Thomas Sowell

Youghal, Ireland - "Pete Navarro is in the news. He is believed to be the ‘architect’ of Trump’s tariff policies. Fox: "White House trade advisor Peter Navarro said Monday that an offer by Vietnam to eliminate tariffs on U.S. imports would not be enough for the administration to lift its new levies announced last week. "Let's take Vietnam. When they come to us and say 'we'll go to zero tariffs,' that means nothing to us because it's the nontariff cheating that matters," Navarro said on CNBC's "Squawk Box."

Say what? Even with zero tariffs Vietnam would still be subject to ‘reciprocal’ charges from the US? How could Vietnam eliminate the ‘non-tariff barriers?’ Make sure its currency doesn’t go down against the dollar? Change its tax policies so they do not encourage exporting? Would it have to give up what Adam Smith called it’s ‘comparative advantage’ – cheap labor -- and raise wages to the US unionized standard, with all America’s labor protections, over-time pay, holidays, and pensions? Will oil rich nations have to compensate for having cheap energy? Cold nations will have to pay a penalty for not needed A/C? Will warm ones need to apologize for their bananas?

White House experts don’t actually analyze any of those things. They just look at trade volumes. So, the only way they will know if Vietnam is not ‘cheating’ is if the balance of trade is even. By this formula the US was a cheater from 1875 to 1971….it ran trade surpluses in all those years. It had a very efficient, advanced economy. Should it have been punished for that?

It was only after Nixon changed the world’s money system that the deficits began…and never ended. The new ‘fake’ dollar -- that the US can effectively ‘print’ at will – is the cause of America’s chronic trade deficits, not NTBs. The real story: after 1971, the US could buy what it needed with its inexhaustible new money; it didn’t need to compete.

Navarro is said to have a Ph.D in economics from Harvard. This makes us very suspicious of Harvard’s standards. But Harvard has figured prominently in US history…and, usually, disastrously. In theory, the role of a Harvard education – we get this first-hand from sharing our marriage bed with a Harvard grad for the last 41 years – is to discipline the mind so it thinks with rigorous logic, and furnish it with enough literature, history and science to give it something to think about.

How then does a man like Pete Navarro end up with a Ph.D. from that august institution? Perhaps its standards have slipped? A bastion of privilege, power and positivism, Harvard cultivates a pernicious weed – the person who believes he can use his brain to know what others should do…and use the government to make them do it. Sprouting from seed in Cambridge, the weed spreads…and soon has covered the ground all the way to the Potomac.

Trump was looking for an economic advisor. His son-in-law reportedly found Navarro’s book (perhaps then on the remainder table, along with our forgotten classic “Empire of Debt”). In ‘Death by China’ the author frequently quotes another Harvard guy, Ron Vara. The only problem is that there is no Ron Vara. He is Navarro’s made-up alter-ego. In effect, the ‘Death by China’ theme is supported by two Harvard men – one fictional, both delusional.

And now word on the street is that Ron Vara is butting heads with Elon Musk. Here’s Politico: "In the early hours of Saturday morning, Musk took to his social media platform X to launch an apparent attack at the president’s senior trade counselor, taking jabs at Navarro under a video in which he explained the Trump administration’s logic in levying tariffs during a CNN appearance. The Department of Government Efficiency head replied to another user’s comment on the video lauding Navarro’s explanation, writing of the economist: “He ain’t built shit.”

Then, Elon’s brother joined the scuffle. Business Insider: "Kimbal Musk, the younger brother of Elon Musk, said on Monday that President Donald Trump's slate of reciprocal tariffs would be like imposing a "permanent tax" on US consumers. The Musk team and the Trump/Navarro Team are not on the Same Team. Musk represents real economic interests…Trump is politics incarnate.

Tariffs are a political move…part demagoguery, part cupidity. They make politicians more powerful as they get to choose who pays what to whom. And they make a few insiders richer as they favor some industries over others. But ultimately, they weaken the economy and make everyone else poorer."

Eventually, the two teams are going to come to blows. And maybe sooner than later. Newsweek: "Musk's open criticism of White House policy is the first time that the relationship between himself and Trump has appeared to be strained." Musk: “A PhD in Econ from Harvard is a bad thing, not a good thing. Results in the ego/brains>>1 problem.” More to come…"

- https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/

"Are You Ready To Pay A 104% Tariff On All Products From China?"

"Are You Ready To Pay A 104% Tariff 

On All Products From China?"

by Michael Snyder

"How many products do you have in your home right now that were made in China? If you are like most Americans, that number is very high. We should have never allowed ourselves to become so dependent on cheap Chinese goods, but we did. Walmart, Target and our dollar stores are absolutely teeming with products that were manufactured in China, and now those products are about to get much more expensive. The 34 percent “retaliatory tariff” that the Trump administration recently imposed on the Chinese was on top of a 20 percent tariff that the Trump administration had already imposed on them. The White House has confirmed this. Unfortunately, the 54 percent tariff that we were potentially facing will now rise to 104 percent thanks to an additional 50 percent tariff that will go into effect on April 9th. Earlier today, President Trump posted the following on his Truth Social account…

"Yesterday, China issued Retaliatory Tariffs of 34%, on top of their already record setting Tariffs, Non-Monetary Tariffs, Illegal Subsidization of companies, and massive long term Currency Manipulation, despite my warning that any country that Retaliates against the U.S. by issuing additional Tariffs, above and beyond their already existing long term Tariff abuse of our Nation, will be immediately met with new and substantially higher Tariffs, over and above those initially set. Therefore, if China does not withdraw its 34% increase above their already long term trading abuses by tomorrow, April 8th, 2025, the United States will impose ADDITIONAL Tariffs on China of 50%, effective April 9th. Additionally, all talks with China concerning their requested meetings with us will be terminated! Negotiations with other countries, which have also requested meetings, will begin taking place immediately. Thank you for your attention to this matter!"

The math is very clear: 20 percent plus 34 percent plus 50 percent equals 104 percent. No matter how the pundits try to spin this, the truth is that we will be paying this tariff if we continue to purchase Chinese products. It is easy to say that we should just switch to products made in the U.S., but in thousands of cases there simply are not any similar products manufactured here. And in thousands of other cases, products that are ultimately assembled in the U.S. depend on components that come from China.

Once again, we should have never allowed ourselves to get into this situation. Trying to reverse course now is going to be a major league headache. I asked Google AI to tell me some of the products that we get from China, and it produced quite an extensive list…

Consumer Electronics: China is a major source for smartphones, computers, video game consoles, and other electronic devices.

Toys and Games: A significant portion of the toys, games, and sporting goods imported into the U.S. come from China.

Furniture and Bedding: China is a major source for furniture, bedding, and other home goods.

Textiles and Clothing: China is a major source for textile products and clothing.

Machinery and Electrical Equipment: China is a major source for machinery, nuclear reactors, boilers, and electrical equipment

Other Products: China also supplies the U.S. with items like lithium-ion batteries, plastics, and miscellaneous manufactured goods.

Food: While a small percentage of the U.S. food supply comes from China, it is a major supplier for specific items like apple juice, garlic, canned mandarin oranges, fish, and shrimp.

At this point, a list of things that we don’t get from China might be shorter. I am particularly concerned about what these tariffs will do to the pharmaceutical industry, because Google AI says that the vast majority of the active ingredients in our pharmaceutical drugs are imported from China…"While it’s difficult to pinpoint an exact percentage, a significant portion of raw materials for pharmaceutical drugs in the U.S. come from China, with estimates suggesting that around 80% of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) are sourced from China and other countries like India."

We are in so much trouble. Bill Ackman is warning that unless these tariffs are rolled back we are headed into a “self-induced economic nuclear winter”…"Billionaire fund manager Bill Ackman, a staunch President Trump ally, has warned that the world is on the brink of “self-induced economic nuclear winter” as he begged the commander-in-chief to pause his sweeping tariffs. “The President has an opportunity on Monday to call a time out and have the time to execute on fixing an unfair tariff system. Alternatively, we are heading for a self-induced, economic nuclear winter, and we should start hunkering down,” Ackman wrote in a lengthy X post Sunday night. May cooler heads prevail.”

Bill Ackman wouldn’t have become a billionaire if he wasn’t extremely sharp, and I agree with his assessment. The outlook for the months ahead is extremely dismal.

In fact, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink is admitting that most CEOs that he talks to “would say we are probably in a recession right now”…"BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said that the stock market could see declines deepen by another 20% amid uncertainty over President Donald Trump’s tariffs and that CEOs are telling him they think the U.S. economy is likely already in a recession. “Most CEOs I talk to would say we are probably in a recession right now,” Fink told the Economic Club of New York on Monday. Tariffs are expected to make a wide variety of products more expensive, exacerbating inflationary pressures that have been persistent in recent months."

As I discussed on Friday, our economic momentum has been taking us in the wrong direction for a long time. And now these tariffs are going to introduce a tremendous amount of chaos into the equation. As a result of the tariffs that were just imposed, Volkswagen is actually “holding 37,000 cars at US ports”…Volkswagen is holding 37,000 cars at US ports amid tariff turmoil.

Audi, the luxury arm of the world’s second largest global automaker, has confirmed it’s in a high-stakes holding pattern triggered by President Donald Trump’s 25 percent tariff on imported vehicles. The affected cars arrived in the U.S. the same day Trump announced the sweeping levies. Now, they sit idle as VW considers its next move. Executives are thought to be hoping for either a presidential U-turn or a chance to negotiate a lower rate. How long can they possibly hold these vehicles at our ports?

Of course the U.S. auto industry is going to be hit really hard as well…"If President Trump’s trade war has a physical battleground, it is Michigan, where companies and workers are already feeling the beginning of an onslaught that could blow a hole in the state’s economy.

Nearly 20% of the economy is tied to the auto industry, which has become increasingly dependent on parts and vehicles from Canada, Mexico and China—imports Trump hit with steep tariffs in recent weeks. This trade has grown so large that Michigan ranks fifth in the nation by the size of its imports and exports, even though its total economy ranks 14th."

Even before the tariffs were announced, it was clear that a major slowdown was now upon us. For example, the number of commercial bankruptcies in March 2025 was much higher than the number of commercial bankruptcies in March 2024…"More companies filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March than a year ago, indicating economic stress among U.S. businesses, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI). “Commercial Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings increased 20 percent in March 2025, with filings climbing to 733 from the 611 filings registered in March 2024,” ABI said in an April 3 statement."

And during the first three months of this year, U.S. banks filed to close hundreds of local branches…"Banks filed nearly 400 notices for the planned closures of some of their locations across the U.S. in the first three months of the year, according to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s (OCC) records."

Only some of these branches have already shut their doors. The closure of others has received approval from the OCC but has not yet been carried through by the bank, which may ultimately decide against it. Many are pending approval from the OCC, an independent federal agency which safeguards the U.S. banking system, making sure it remains accessible to underserved consumers and communities.

I have been warning that it was not going to take much to push the U.S. economy over the edge. Unfortunately, we just got a really big shove. We have been through so much economic pain over the past four years, and I know that a lot of people out there were quite eager for better times to arrive. Sadly, what we are about to experience is not going to be pleasant at all."

- https://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

Canadian Prepper, "Alert! 110% Tariff! Trump Declares War On China On April 9th!"

Full screen recommended.

Canadian Prepper, 4/7/25

"Alert! 110% Tariff! 

Trump Declares War On China On April 9th!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"China’s Next Move Rains Hell on Global Markets - Brace Yourself!"

Full screen recommended.

Steven Van Metre, 4/7/25

"China’s Next Move Rains Hell on Global Markets -

 Brace Yourself!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

A Rousing Musical Interlude: Talking Heads, "Life During Wartime"

Full screen recommended.

Talking Heads, "Life During Wartime"

Turn it up! lol

Musical Interlude: 2002, "Kindred Spirits"

Full screen recommended.

2002, "Kindred Spirits"

"Once we sailed upon the seas. Now we sail among the stars. This song was composed as a tribute to our friend, harpist Hilary Stagg, who left us far too soon. Hilary loved the sea and he loved the stars."

"A Look to the Heavens"

“Few butterflies have a wingspan this big. The bright clusters and nebulae of planet Earth's night sky are often named for flowers or insects, and NGC 6302 is no exception. With an estimated surface temperature of about 250,000 degrees C, the central star of this particular planetary nebula is exceptionally hot though - shining brightly in ultraviolet light but hidden from direct view by a dense torus of dust. 

 Click image for larger size.

This dramatically detailed close-up of the dying star's nebula was recorded by the Hubble Space Telescope soon after it was upgraded in 2009. Cutting across a bright cavity of ionized gas, the dust torus surrounding the central star is near the center of this view, almost edge-on to the line-of-sight. Molecular hydrogen has been detected in the hot star's dusty cosmic shroud. NGC 6302 lies about 4,000 light-years away in the arachnologically correct constellation of the Scorpion (Scorpius).”

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap111113.html

"The Trick..."

"The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable,

or we make ourselves happy. The amount of work is the same."

- Carlos Castaneda

"How, Then..."

"How, then, shall we face the future? When the sailor is out on the ocean, when everything is changing all around him, when the waves are born and die, he does not stare down into the waves, because they are changing. He looks up at the stars. Why? Because they are faithful..."

- Soren Kierkegaard

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Procol Harum, "A Salty Dog"

"All Earthly Empires Die"

"All Earthly Empires Die"

by Bill Bonner

"'Amor fati' was Nietzsche’s famous expression. It is a Latin phrase with connections to the Stoic writings of Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius. Literally translated, it means “love of fate.” It is a white shoe yearning for mud. It is a turkey looking forward to Thanksgiving. Or an investor stoically preparing for a bear market.

We use the term to describe the grace and courage you need to meet a complex, unknowable, and uncontrollable future. You don’t know whether the Earth is warming or cooling… whether it is good or bad… or whether you can do anything about it. You don’t know who’s doing “equal work.” You don’t know what equality is… how to measure it… or what to do about it. You don’t know who the bad guy is. It may even be you. It recognizes that we are all God’s fools, living in a world of ignorance, headed towards we don’t know where. Using our brains, we can make progress in our physical, material world. Technical thinking yields pyramids and Eiffel Towers.

Ignorance Everywhere: But there is another part of life, which has a mind of its own. It does not bend readily to our desires or yield to our intelligence. It is the part of life whose purposes are unknown. The first and most important Commandment, according to Jesus, was not to fight it, but to love it.

But ignorance can be a charm. You just have to take it seriously. And appreciate it. Recognizing your own ignorance will inform your newfound modesty. You will be aware of it. And fiercely proud. Nobody will be humbler than you are! And since you are so chummy with ignorance, you will see it everywhere – in every headline, every public announcement, every speech on the floor of the Senate… and every crackpot comment from every dummy voter in the empire.

In private affairs, you reduce uncertainty by getting as close to the subject as possible. That is, you avoid secondhand “news” and try to find out for yourself. The more you know about a company, for example, the more confident you can be about investing in it. That’s why the insiders always have the inside track, an advantage that is increased by the Securities and Exchange Commission’s phony “level playing field” propaganda. In public affairs – policy discussions, economics, politics – as you get closer, you become less cocksure. That is, the more you know, the more you know you don’t know.

In an interesting university study, people were asked to pick out Ukraine on a map… and whether they approved of military intervention in that country. Curiously, the further off they were on the geography (the average guess was 1,800 miles off), the more they favored forceful intervention. In public affairs, ignorance and confidence vary inversely.

Moral Certainty: When we first moved to Baltimore in the 1980s, we noticed this phenomenon in another context. Baltimore was a disaster. Crime, drugs, poverty, venereal disease, broken homes, unwed mothers, corruption – name a social problem; Baltimore had it. And while its leaders had been noticeably unable to solve any of these problems right in their own back yard, the city’s politically correct politicians were loud and clear on one issue: apartheid had to end… in South Africa. Had they ever visited South Africa? Could they find it on a map? Probably not. But they were sure they knew how to make it a better place.

“Moral certainty is always a sign of cultural inferiority,” wrote Baltimore’s own H.L. Mencken. “The more uncivilized the man, the surer he is that he knows precisely what is right and what is wrong. All human progress, even in morals, has been the work of men who have doubted the current moral values, not of men who have whooped them up and tried to enforce them. The truly civilized man is always skeptical and tolerant, in this field as in all others. His culture is based on ‘I am not too sure.’”

“I am not too sure,” would eliminate many of the world’s myth-driven, self-inflicted ills – pointless wars, dumb arguments, pogroms, persecutions, and lynchings. And reckless spending of other people’s money.

Imagine a wise Hitler entertaining the idea of building Auschwitz as a “final solution” to the “Jewish problem.” “Hmmm… I’m not too sure that would solve it… In fact, I’m not too sure there is a problem!”

Imagine Simon de Montfort readying to attack the town of Albi to exterminate the “heretics.” When told that half the people in the town were good Catholics, de Montfort replied: “Kill them all. God will recognize His own.” Suppose he had thought twice… “Hmmm… Maybe this is not such a good idea… Maybe killing people is not what Christianity is all about… Maybe the heretics aren’t so bad… Maybe I’ll take the afternoon off.”

Unwarranted Confidence: The whole system of modern public policy is built on false knowledge and unwarranted confidence. The elite claims to know what is best for you. That is how every politician can claim his proposals would “benefit the American people.” But the only program that would benefit the American people would be to let them decide for themselves what would benefit them. Give them back their money. Stop bossing them around. End the wars. Stop the empire. But who would suggest such a thing?

A book that appeared in 2018, "Psychology of a Superpower: Security and Dominance in U.S. Foreign Policy", by political scientist Christopher Fettweis, argued that power really does corrupt, and that when a nation or an empire gets too much power, its elite develops new opinions.

Rather than seeing itself as one of many nations that must get along with each other, its elites begin to see that they have a special role to play. They become the one, “indispensable” nation, as former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright put it. They are the world’s only hope in combatting evil, which they do, as current Secretary of State Mike Pompeo elaborated, with “the righteous knowledge that our cause is just, special, and built upon America’s core principles.”

Thus endowed with a special mission and special powers, and subject to the special rules of the only nation with a trillion-dollar-per-year military/empire budget, the elite develop, in Fettweis’s judgment, a fatal combination of unrestrained hubris, unrealistic paranoia, and unrepentant ignorance. They see danger everywhere, without undertaking any serious study (they assume knowledge comes automatically with raw power). And they think they have not only the right, but the means, to do something about it, even if the danger is largely fantasy.

Damned to Hell: But people always come to think what they need to think when they need to think it. “All earthly empires die,” wrote St. Augustine in 413, a few years before the Vandals destroyed his city and finally brought down the Roman Empire in the West.

The elite contribute, by taking up the myths that help it die. Certainty and ignorance vary proportionally, both on the individual and on a national level. The surer a nation is of its myths… its exceptionalism… its manifest destiny… its policies… and its position at the right hand of God… the more it is damned to Hell."

- www.rogueeconomics.com

The Daily "Near You?"

Tillsonburg, Ontario, Canada. Thanks for stopping by!

“A Life Worth Living: Albert Camus on Our Search for Meaning and Why Happiness Is Our Moral Obligation”

“A Life Worth Living: Albert Camus on Our Search for

Meaning and Why Happiness Is Our Moral Obligation”

by Maria Popova

“To decide whether life is worth living is to answer the fundamental question of philosophy,” Albert Camus (November 7, 1913–January 4, 1960) wrote in his 119-page philosophical essay “The Myth of Sisyphus” in 1942. “There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy. All the rest – whether or not the world has three dimensions, whether the mind has nine or twelve categories – comes afterwards. These are games; one must first answer. And if it is true, as Nietzsche claims, that a philosopher, to deserve our respect, must preach by example, you can appreciate the importance of that reply, for it will precede the definitive act. These are facts the heart can feel; yet they call for careful study before they become clear to the intellect. Everything else… is child’s play; we must first of all answer the question.” 

One of the most famous opening lines of the twentieth century captures one of humanity’s most enduring philosophical challenges – the impulse at the heart of Seneca’s meditations on life and Montaigne’s timeless essays and Maya Angelou’s reflections, and a wealth of human inquiry in between. But Camus, the second-youngest recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature after Rudyard Kipling, addressed it with unparalleled courage of conviction and insight into the irreconcilable longings of the human spirit.

In the beautifully titled and beautifully written “A Life Worth Living: Albert Camus and the Quest for Meaning” (public library), historian Robert Zaretsky considers Camus’s lifelong quest to shed light on the absurd condition, his “yearning for a meaning or a unity to our lives,” and its timeless yet increasingly timely legacy: If the question abides, it is because it is more than a matter of historical or biographical interest. Our pursuit of meaning, and the consequences should we come up empty-handed, are matters of eternal immediacy.

Camus pursues the perennial prey of philosophy – the questions of who we are, where and whether we can find meaning, and what we can truly know about ourselves and the world – less with the intention of capturing them than continuing the chase.”

Reflecting on the parallels between Camus and Montaigne, Zaretsky finds in this ongoing chase one crucial difference of dispositions: “Camus achieves with the Myth what the philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty claimed for Montaigne’s Essays: it places “a consciousness astonished at itself at the core of human existence.”

For Camus, however, this astonishment results from our confrontation with a world that refuses to surrender meaning. It occurs when our need for meaning shatters against the indifference, immovable and absolute, of the world. As a result, absurdity is not an autonomous state; it does not exist in the world, but is instead exhaled from the abyss that divides us from a mute world.”

Camus himself captured this with extraordinary elegance when he wrote in “The Myth of Sisyphus”: “This world in itself is not reasonable, that is all that can be said. But what is absurd is the confrontation of this irrational and wild longing for clarity whose call echoes in the human heart. The absurd depends as much on man as on the world. For the moment it is all that links them together.”

To discern these echoes amid the silence of the world, Zaretsky suggests, was at the heart of Camus’s tussle with the absurd: “We must not cease in our exploration, Camus affirms, if only to hear more sharply the silence of the world. In effect, silence sounds out when human beings enter the equation. If “silences must make themselves heard,” it is because those who can hear inevitably demand it. And if the silence persists, where are we to find meaning?”

This search for meaning was not only the lens through which Camus examined every dimension of life, from the existential to the immediate, but also what he saw as our greatest source of agency. In one particularly prescient diary entry from November of 1940, as WWII was gathering momentum, he writes: “Understand this: we can despair of the meaning of life in general, but not of the particular forms that it takes; we can despair of existence, for we have no power over it, but not of history, where the individual can do everything. It is individuals who are killing us today. Why should not individuals manage to give the world peace? We must simply begin without thinking of such grandiose aims.”

For Camus, the question of meaning was closely related to that of happiness - something he explored with great insight in his notebooks. Zaretsky writes: “Camus observed that absurdity might ambush us on a street corner or a sun-blasted beach. But so, too, do beauty and the happiness that attends it. All too often, we know we are happy only when we no longer are.”

Perhaps most importantly, Camus issued a clarion call of dissent in a culture that often conflates happiness with laziness and championed the idea that happiness is nothing less than a moral obligation. A few months before his death, Camus appeared on the TV show Gros Plan. Dressed in a trench coat, he flashed his mischievous boyish smile and proclaimed into the camera: “Today, happiness has become an eccentric activity. The proof is that we tend to hide from others when we practice it. As far as I’m concerned, I tend to think that one needs to be strong and happy in order to help those who are unfortunate.”

This wasn’t a case of Camus arriving at some mythic epiphany in his old age – the cultivation of happiness and the eradication of its obstacles was his most persistent lens on meaning. More than two decades earlier, he had contemplated “the demand for happiness and the patient quest for it” in his journal, capturing with elegant simplicity the essence of the meaningful life – an ability to live with presence despite the knowledge that we are impermanent: ”We must” be happy with our friends, in harmony with the world, and earn our happiness by following a path which nevertheless leads to death.”

But his most piercing point integrates the questions of happiness and meaning into the eternal quest to find ourselves and live our truth: ”It is not so easy to become what one is, to rediscover one’s deepest measure.”

- https://www.brainpickings.org/

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Freely download “The Myth of Sisyphus,” by  Albert Camus, here:

- http://www2.hawaii.edu/

"I Remember..."

"I remember my youth and the feeling that will never come back any more – the feeling that I could last for ever, outlast the sea, the earth, and all men; the deceitful feeling that lures us on to joys, to perils, to love, to vain effort – to death; the triumphant conviction of strength, the heat of life in the handful of dust, the glow in the heart that with every year grows dim, grows cold, grows small, and expires – and expires, too soon, too soon – before life itself."

- Joseph Conrad, 1857-1924, English writer, "Youth"