Well, the party's over folks. Welcome to Reality...
Now what?
So, we rise from the rubble...
Friday, October 1, 2021
Thursday, September 30, 2021
Must Watch! “Economy Has Already Crashed, Market Is Next; Investors Crushed Like Cockroaches; Restaurants Dying”
Jeremiah Babe, PM 9/30/21:
“Economy Has Already Crashed, Market Is Next;
Investors Crushed Like Cockroaches; Restaurants Dying”
Greg Hunter, "Unvaxed at Risk from Vaxed in Coming Dark Winter"
"Unvaxed at Risk from Vaxed in Coming Dark Winter"
By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
Karen Kingston is a medical analyst that researches a wide variety of things in the medical world. She’s an expert in getting new drugs and medical devices approved and pass regulatory hurdles. She researched the drug patents for the CV19 vaccine and says the unvaxed are at serious medical risk form the vaxed. Kingston explains, “If you take a look at the biological license approval for Pfizer, it specifically explains that Comirnaty is a nucleoside-modified messenger RNA. What is that? That is a man-made genetic material that coats the spike protein of SARS COV 2. So, people who are injected are producing trillions of the disease causing spike protein, and they can infect other people. This was documented in the August 2015 document by the FDA called ‘Viral Based Gene Therapies’ and shedding analysis and design studies. This is what’s called a viral gene based therapy, and it’s very well documented by the FDA. That is clear evidence that they knew the shedding would occur.”
This is so insidious that the FDA is well aware of unvaxed pregnant women. Kingston says, “Not only can you get sick, but if you get pregnant and are around someone who is vaccinated, that could result in the death of your baby, your baby dying within one month of being born, birth defects and autoimmune disease over its lifetime. That is horrifying.”
Kingston says there are also cases of vaxed parents infecting their unvaxed children. Kingston says, “If you look at the weekly morbidity and mortality reports from the CDC in August, they showed that there was a major spike in cases of hospitalization in children between 1 and 4 years old, then 5 and 12, and 12 to 18 beginning in January and going up very quickly. Well, the children were not supposed to be vaccinated. That’s correct – the parents are. As parents get more and more vaccinated, the children, particularly 1 to 4 year olds, are the highest spike in hospitalizations due to Covid. Children never got Covid before. What they are getting is Covid from their parents being vaccinated.” Kingston gives ways to minimize the risk for the unvaccinated and also some help for the vaccinated with a supplement called NAC.
Kingston says the world needs to wake up to the extreme and contends, “This is absolutely unlawful, and I just can’t believe parents, police officers, healthcare providers and our government are just standing by and basically letting a conspiracy to commit aggravated assault and murder on our children and employees. I am tired of people saying this is conspiracy theory, it’s unproven. It’s not. All these documents are available on the FDA, NIH and USPTO.gov.”
One thing is for sure, more and more vaxed people and some unvaxed people are going to get sick, and many will also die from the vaccines forced on the world. Can it be avoided? Kingston says, “I think there is a way to avoid this to get the truth out there and to start treating people. Otherwise, yes, let’s heed the words of Dr. Fauci, this time and this time only, which is that we are in for a dark winter.” (What is written here is only a small portion of what is covered. There is much more in the 58 minute interview.)"
Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he goes One-on-One with
pharmaceutical and medical device analyst Karen Kingston.
"I'd Still Swim..."
"If I were dropped out of a plane into the ocean and told
the nearest land was a thousand miles away, I'd still swim.
And I'd despise the one who gave up. "
- Abraham Maslow
"A Look to the Heavens"
"Gorgeous spiral galaxy M33 seems to have more than its fair share of glowing hydrogen gas. A prominent member of the local group of galaxies, M33 is also known as the Triangulum Galaxy and lies a mere 3 million light-years away. Sprawling along loose spiral arms that wind toward the core, M33's giant HII regions are some of the largest known stellar nurseries, sites of the formation of short-lived but very massive stars. Intense ultraviolet radiation from the luminous massive stars ionizes the surrounding hydrogen gas and ultimately produces the characteristic red glow.
Click image for larger size.
To highlight the HII regions in this telescopic image, broadband data used to produce a color view of the galaxy were combined with narrowband data recorded through a hydrogen-alpha filter, transmitting the light of the strongest hydrogen emission line. Close-ups of cataloged HII regions appear in the sidebar insets. Use the individual reference number to find their location within the Triangulum Galaxy. For example, giant HII region NGC604 is identified in an inset on the right and appears at position number 15. That's about 4 o'clock from galaxy center in this portrait of M33."
"A Very Fit Consideration..."
“How vast those Orbs must be, and how inconsiderable this Earth, the Theatre upon which all our mighty Designs, all our Navigations, and all our Wars are transacted, is when compared to them. A very fit consideration, and matter of Reflection, for those Kings and Princes who sacrifice the Lives of so many People, only to flatter their Ambition in being Masters of some pitiful corner of this small Spot.”
- Christiaan Huygens, (1629-1695)
"Has Our Luck Finally Run Out?"
"Has Our Luck Finally Run Out?"
by Charles Hugh-Smith
"Long-term cycles escape our notice because they play out over many years or even decades; few noticed the decreasing rainfall in the Mediterranean region in 150 A.D. but this gradual decline in rainfall slowly but surely reduced the grain harvests of the Roman Empire, which coupled with rising populations resulted in a reduced caloric intake for many people. This weakened their immune systems in subtle ways, leaving them more vulnerable to the Antonine Plague of 165 AD.
The decline of temperatures in Northern Europe in the early 1300s led to “years without summer” and failed grain harvests which reduced the caloric intake of most people, leaving them weakened and more vulnerable to the Black Plague which swept Europe in 1347.
I’ve mentioned the book "The Fate of Rome: Climate, Disease, and the End of an Empire" a number of times as a source for understanding the impact of natural cycles on human civilization. It’s important to note that the natural cycles and pandemics of 200 AD didn’t just cripple the Roman Empire; this same era saw the collapse of the mighty Parthian Empire of Persia, the kingdoms of India and the Han Dynasty in China.
In addition to natural cycles, there are human socio-economic cycles of debt and decay of civic values and the social contract: a proliferation of parasitic elites, a weakening of state finances and a decline in the purchasing power of wages/labor. The rising dependence on debt and its eventual collapse is a cycle noted by Kondratieff and others, and Peter Turchin listed these three dynamics as the key drivers of decisive discord of the kind that brings down empires and nations. All three are playing out globally in the present.
In this context, the election of Donald Trump in 2016 was a political expression of long-brewing discontent with precisely these issues: the rise of self-serving parasitic elites, the decay/corruption of the social contract and state finances and the decades-long decline in the purchasing power of wages/labor.
Which brings us to karma, a topic of some confusion in Western cultures more familiar with Divine Retribution than with actions having consequences even without Divine Intervention, which is the essence of karma. Broadly speaking, the U.S. squandered the opportunities presented by the end of the Cold War 30 years ago on hubristic Exceptionalism, wars of choice, parasitic elites and an unprecedented waste of resources on unproductive consumption.
Now the plan – for lack of any real plan – is to borrow trillions of dollars to fund an even more spectacular orgy of unproductive consumption, on the bizarre belief that “money” can be conjured out of thin air in essentially infinite quantities and squandered, and there will magically be no consequences of this trickery in the real world.
Actions have consequences, and after 30 years of waste, fraud and corruption being normalized by the parasitic elites while the purchasing power of labor decayed, the karmic consequences can no longer be delayed by doing more of what’s hollowed out the economy and society.
Which brings us to luck. As a general rule, historians seek explanations which leave luck out of the equation. This gives us a false confidence in the predictability and power of human will and action and cycles. Yes, cycles and human action influence outcomes, but we do a great disservice by shunting luck into the shadows as a non-factor.
If Emperor Pius had chosen someone other than Marcus Aurelius as his successor, someone weak, vain and self-absorbed like so many of Rome’s late-stage emperors, then Rome would have fallen by 170 AD as the Antonine Plague crippled finances and the army, and the invading hordes would have swept the empire into the dustbin of history. It can be argued that only Marcus Aurelius had the experience and character to sell off the Imperial treasure to raise the money needed to pay the soldiers and spend virtually his entire term in power in the front lines of battle, preserving Rome from complete collapse. That was good judgement by Pius but also good luck.
As we ponder luck, consider the estimate that had the meteorite that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago struck the Earth 30 minutes earlier or later, it would not have generated the Nuclear Winter that destroyed the dinosaurs. (A direct hit in deep water would have spawned a monstrous tsunami, but no dust cloud. A direct hit on land would have raised a dust cloud but without the water vapor/steam generated by the vaporization of millions of gallons of sea water, the cloud wouldn’t have risen high enough to encircle the planet.) That was bad luck for the dinosaurs, and good luck for the mammals who replaced them.
The global economy has been extraordinarily lucky for 75 years. Food and energy have been cheap and abundant. (If you think food and energy are expensive now, think about prices doubling or tripling, and then doubling again.)
In our complacency and hubris, we attribute this to our wonderful technologies, which we assume guarantee us permanent surpluses of energy and food. The idea that technology has reached hard limits or that it could fail doesn’t occur to us. We’ve taken good luck to be our birthright because it’s all we’ve known. We attribute this good fortune to things within our control – technology, wise investments and policies, etc. The possibility that all these powers that we consider so godlike are insignificant doesn’t occur to us because we’ve enjoyed the favorable winds of luck without even being aware of it.
We are woefully unprepared for a long run of bad luck. My sense is the cycles have turned and the good luck has drained from the hour-glass. Energy and food will no longer be cheap and abundant, our luck in leadership will vanish, and our vaunted technologies will fail to maintain an abundance so vast that we can squander the finite wealth of soil, water, resources and energy on mindless consumption.
I’m reminded of a line from an Albert King song, "Born Under a Bad Sign" (composed by Booker T. Jones and William Bell): “If it wasn’t for bad luck, I wouldn’t have no luck at all.” The next five years might have us singing this line with feeling."
"Panic At Sea: 500,000 Containers Stuck At US Ports As Supply Chain Crisis Goes From Bad To Worse"
Full screen recommended.
"Panic At Sea: 500,000 Containers Stuck At US Ports
As Supply Chain Crisis Goes From Bad To Worse"
by Epic Economist
"Global supply chains are in a state of absolute chaos. Every time things seem to be getting back on track, a new disruption emerges and pushes the entire system to the brink of a collapse. Even the mainstream media is extremely alarmed about the worsening of this crisis. Widespread shortages are being reported all across the country, but the situation may escalate to a whole new level over the coming weeks as millions of supply chain workers are threatening to quit their jobs.
Over the past 18 months, seafarers, truck drivers, and airline workers have dealt with strict travel restrictions, testing requirements, and a crew change crisis that left nearly a million workers stuck at sea for almost a year. After so many challenges, millions of them are reaching their breaking point and planning to quit the workforce, posing yet another risk to congested ports, container vessels, and trucking companies. Last week, the International Chamber of Shipping sent a letter to heads of state attending the United Nations General Assembly warning of a “global transport system collapse” if governments do not lift movement restrictions to transport workers and give them priority to get vaccines so that they can travel freely around the world.
"Global supply chains are beginning to buckle as two years' worth of strain on transport workers take their toll," the groups wrote. The letter was signed by several groups, including the International Air Transport Association, the International Road Transport Union, and the International Transport Workers’ Federation. Together they represent 65 million transport workers globally. "All transport sectors are also seeing a shortage of workers, and expect more to leave as a result of the poor treatment millions have faced during the sanitary outbreak, putting the supply chain under greater threat," it added.
At this moment, the situation is looking particularly dire at our ports. Dozens of cargo ships are arriving every day and having to wait for days to finally get unloaded. In the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, at least 75 cargo ships are carrying an estimated 500,000 containers and no one seems to know what to do and how to handle the unprecedented backlog given that there are not enough dockworkers to empty all of those containers. Never in history, US ports faced such acute congestion. To make things worse, the container backlog on the other side of the world is even bigger. In China, at least 154 container ships full of import cargo are stuck offshore waiting to unload and refill containers with export goods in Shanghai and Ningbo ports, according to eeSea, a company that analyzes carrier schedules. All across the country, a total of 242 container ships are waiting for berths.
Congestion in Chinese ports means that the flow of exports to U.S. importers is significantly constrained. This comes as retailers struggle to restock their inventories before the busy holiday shopping season. Waiting times are more than doubling and shipping delays have become the norm. As this crisis aggravates, we're now being told that this holiday season is going to be a turbulent one. "Retailers are sounding the alarm on the upcoming holiday shopping season due to serious supply chain issues that are slowing shipments of manufactured goods around the world," CBS reported., adding that: "chaos theory in its simplest form says if a butterfly flaps its wings in China, it means rain in Central Park. Well, that applies not just to weather, but supply chains as well, and in the Bay Area, it will impact everything from computer parts for your car to the gifts and toys on your holiday shopping list".
So if you really want to get something for the coming season, you should probably place your order right now, because there's a huge chance that it will not be available later. According to the Chamber of Commerce, the delivery delays are only going to get worse from now on. At the grocery store, soaring food prices have been absolutely devastating for working-poor families who allocate a high percentage of their incomes to basic and essential items. While many Americans are still relying on the false idea that widespread shortages will never become a reality in the world's most prosperous nation, soon enough they will notice that extensive shortages are already here and they will persist for months. The unprepared are usually the ones that end up becoming panic buyers. And once they realize that our leaders won't come up with some sort of quick fix to this crisis, our entire system will be shaken to the core. As the blind lead the blind, our country heads to yet another critical season while most people remain unaware of the looming threats."
"US Debt of $30 Trillion Visualized in Stacks of Physical Cash"
Full screen recommended.
Demonocracy Info,
"US Debt of $30 Trillion Visualized in Stacks of Physical Cash"
"Congress Kicks the Can"
"Congress Kicks the Can"
by Brian Maher
"CNBC gives the news: "Congress was poised to prevent a government shutdown Thursday with hours to go before a midnight deadline. The Senate and House both passed a short-term appropriations bill that would keep the government running through Dec. 3. The U.S. will avoid a lapse in funding once President Joe Biden signs it into law. The Senate approved the legislation in a 65-35 vote, as 15 Republicans joined all 50 Democrats. The House passed the bill by a 254-175 margin as 34 GOP representatives and every Democrat supported it."
Barring delays, the House is expected to approve the plan and send it to President Joe Biden before funding lapses. President Joe Biden will of course sign his name to the legislation. We hazard many palms were greased… many backs were scratched… many arms were twisted. Many horses were traded.
“Disaster” Avoided: And so federal workers essential to the Republic’s safety will remain on station - the customs official at Ketchikan, Alaska - for example. The Transportation Security Administration will still defend the aerial ways against infants, their great-grandmothers, the crippled and related hellcats. Social Security checks will still go through the mails. In event of national invasion, the Marines will answer the bugle.
Of course, Congress would never permit an authentic government shutdown. One fellow attempts to seize concessions from the other… to make him blink first. The other pursues an identical strategy. But they come to terms by the fatal hour. The political combat before us is thus reduced to spectacle, a professional wrestling bout with its false feuds, artificial blows and imitation blood. The outcome is pre-decided. And so today the soda can goes rolling down the roadway, kicked plenty hard. You will be treated to the identical show in December, when the present arrangement terminates - depend on it.
913,242.24 Years of Ceaseless Labor: Consider another enormity - the national debt - presently running, again, to $28.8 trillion. You are committed to frugality in government. Each dollar you print you therefore consecrate to retiring the nation’s debt. Thus we multiply 31,709.8 years by 28.8. Here is what we learn: Reducing today’s $28.8 trillion debt to $0… would require 913,242.24 years of ceaseless labor - 13,046.31 lifetimes. Commence today and the job is done in the year of our Lord 915,263.
And we are not factoring interest on this debt. We will spare you the calculations for fear of your sanity. The business seems beyond all human agency, beyond all control. ‘What can I do?’ a fellow wonders. His shoulders he shrugs. His head he bows. He may cluck-cluck his opposition to it all - and what sane man does not?
The Modern Monetary Theory zanies may be for it. They argue that greater and greater debt is the great elixir, the granite foundation of wealth everlasting, the goose that is golden. But our normal man, he is no zany. He has good, hard sense in him. He is sturdy, he is sound. He is also powerless. He is a man resigned..."
Gerald Celente, “Great Reset Coming: Equity Markets Worst Month Since March 2000”
Full screen recommended.
Gerald Celente, PM 9/30/21:
Strong Language Alert!
“Great Reset Coming: Equity Markets
Worst Month Since March 2000”
“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.”
"The Cargo Ship Crisis is Manufactured - Creating Supply Chain Nightmare"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly, AM 9/30/21:
"The Cargo Ship Crisis is Manufactured -
Creating Supply Chain Nightmare"
"We travel up the coast to the Port of Los Angeles to see all the backed up cargo ships. These ships are waiting to enter the port to get unloaded. It gets worse by the week. Our Economy is collapsing before our eyes."
"An Idiot’s Tale"
"An Idiot’s Tale"
by Bill Bonner
"It is a tale, told by an idiot,
Full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."
– William Shakespeare
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND – "Yes, Dear Reader, them vs. us… left vs. right… Democrat vs. Republican – it’s all a fraud. It diverts the masses, while the elite pick their pockets and kick their butts. Stagey… fake… full of sound and fury – the battle over the debt ceiling is just the most recent example.
It’s another “emergency,” says the elite press. Here, sounding the alarm… loud, clear, and phony… is The Hill: "A government default on credit is worse than the most terrifying disaster movies you’ve ever seen. It means the government won’t pay its debts when they’re owed. It means the total loss of trust and confidence in the United States by other governments and foreign financial markets." In three words, it will be “a catastrophic blow.”
Bossed Around: War is politics. Politics is war. The only difference is that in war, people are killed. In politics, they are only robbed… and bossed around. Both are dead ends. They produce no wealth (nothing that people really want, except the pleasure… for a few… of ripping others off). We described the phenomenon in our book "Win-Win or Lose." [Bonner-Denning Letter subscribers can download Bill’s book here. To subscribe, and receive a complimentary electronic copy, just click here.]
There are only two ways to get what you want: either honestly… or dishonestly. You either make it… or you take it. How do you take it? You can rob a liquor store. You can sell a fake crypto coin. Or you can go into politics. We saw on Tuesday how the COVID-19 virus became a political issue. According to news reports, top officials from both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have resigned because they feel they are being pressured to approve the booster shots “and other things.” Apparently, “The Science” is not as sure and settled as we were told. And politics prevailed.
What Credibility? Then yesterday, the debt ceiling came front and center, with almost everyone saying what a catastrophe it would be if the politicians can’t continue to spend more than they take in. But slowing the engines of the Titanic wouldn’t have been such a bad idea. And cutting back the feds’ spending to the 2014 level (so current spending matches current tax receipts, as we suggested yesterday) wouldn’t be a disaster at all.
And here’s The Hill (member in good standing of the Ruling Elite) using the same idiotic, scary language for the debt ceiling as the feds use to sell their shooting wars: "Debt ceiling games endanger US fiscal credibility – again."
Really? How much fiscal credibility can a nation have when it spends $3 trillion dollars more than it can afford… on “investments” that never pay off… and runs up $29 trillion in national debt… and rigs interest rates to keep its debt costs low?
Keep the Racket Going: And what real harm would be done by admitting the truth – that it can’t pay its bills? It’s obvious it can neither tax enough… nor borrow enough (on the open market) to keep up with the bills. It can only keep this racket going by printing more and more money. That is, by resorting to the shadiest kind of “politics,” cheating the public with inflation, rather than taxing them directly. Which is precisely why the debt ceiling brouhaha is a fraud. Both Republicans and Democrats (all of them members in good standing of the Ruling Elite) share the same overriding desire – to keep the jig up.
And while they jump and dance for the media fiddlers, neither wants an honest budget. Neither wants honest money or honest interest rates… or an honest, “win-win” economy. Instead, they are all committed to war and politics… to taking, rather than making.
Partial Truce: CBS News reported last night that a partial truce had been negotiated: "Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced Wednesday night that an agreement to keep the government funded and prevent a government shutdown has been reached. The short-term government funding bill would keep federal agencies operating through December 3, but it does not address the looming deadline to raise the debt ceiling to avoid U.S. default."
One way or another, the debt ceiling will be smashed… the reckless spending will go on… the Republicans and the Democrats will keep entertaining us with their mock battles…and the decline of the U.S. empire will continue. More to come…"
"Even The Liberal Media Is Warning Of A 'System Collapse' Due To The Failure Of Global Supply Chains"
"Even The Liberal Media Is Warning Of A 'System Collapse'
Due To The Failure Of Global Supply Chains"
by Michael Snyder
"If CNN starts sounding like The Economic Collapse Blog, what does that mean? Unfortunately, the truth about what is in our immediate future is becoming apparent to everyone. Global supply chains are in a state of complete and utter chaos, and this is driving up prices and causing widespread shortages all over the country. Over the past couple of weeks, I have written five articles with either “shortage” or “shortages” in the title, and some have accused me of being a little alarmist. If that is the case, then CNN is being alarmist too, because one of their top stories today openly warned of a “global transport system collapse”…
In an open letter Wednesday to heads of state attending the United Nations General Assembly, the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) and other industry groups warned of a “global transport system collapse” if governments do not restore freedom of movement to transport workers and give them priority to receive vaccines recognized by the World Health Organization.
For decades, we have all been able to take our extremely complex supply chains for granted. Things have always been where they need to be when they needed to be there, and many of us just assumed that it would always be that way.
But now organizations that represent 65 million transport workers around the globe are openly warning that “global supply chains are beginning to buckle”… “Global supply chains are beginning to buckle as two years’ worth of strain on transport workers take their toll,” the groups wrote. The letter has also been signed by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the International Road Transport Union (IRU) and the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF). Together they represent 65 million transport workers globally. “All transport sectors are also seeing a shortage of workers, and expect more to leave as a result of the poor treatment millions have faced during the pandemic, putting the supply chain under greater threat,” it added."
Things are particularly bad at our ports. Right now, there is a backlog of approximately 500,000 shipping containers waiting on ships off the west coast waiting to be unloaded… As an estimated 500,000 containers are sitting on cargo ships off the Southern California coast, many are wondering how to handle the backlog.
Needless to say, we have never seen anything like this before. But what most Americans don’t realize is that the backlog off the coast of China is even worse…"There are over 60 container ships full of import cargo stuck offshore of Los Angeles and Long Beach, but there are more than double that - 154 as of Friday - waiting to load export cargo off Shanghai and Ningbo in China, according to eeSea, a company that analyzes carrier schedules.
The number of container ships anchored off Shanghai and Ningbo has surged over recent weeks. There are now 242 container ships waiting for berths countrywide. Whether it’s due to heavy export volumes, Typhoon Chanthu or COVID, rising congestion in China is yet another wild card for the trans-Pacific trade."
If you are waiting for something to come in from overseas, you may be waiting for a very long time. Because of all the chaos, we are being warned that this could be a holiday season like no other…"Retailers are sounding the alarm on the upcoming holiday shopping season due to serious supply chain issues that are slowing shipments of manufactured goods around the world."
Chaos theory in it’s simplest form says if a butterfly flaps its wings in China, it means rain in Central Park. Well, that applies not just to weather, but supply chains as well, and in the Bay Area, it will impact everything from computer parts for your car to the gifts and toys on your holiday shopping list. If there is something that you really want to get your hands on, you might want to order it now, because it may not be available later.
In addition to shortages, supply chain issues are also pushing prices significantly higher. For example, we just learned that the price of bacon has risen almost 28 percent over the past year… "The average price for that slab of bacon to accompany the Sunday morning spread has jumped nearly 28% during the past 12 months, inflation-adjusted Consumer Price Index data show."
The supply chain issues and inflationary pressures that have become all-too common in these pandemic times certainly have played theirs roles in the pork price hikes, alongside a slew of industry-specific influence. A lot of people may be forced to stop eating bacon as a result of soaring prices, and from a health perspective that is not a bad thing.
And the price of bacon is going to continue to go higher, because U.S. hog herds are shrinking at a brisk pace… "US hog herds experienced the most significant monthly drop in two decades, according to new data from the USDA. The reason behind the drop is because farmers decreased hog-herd development over the last year due to labor disruptions at slaughterhouses plus high animal feed.
USDA data showed the US hog herd was 3.9% lower in August than a year ago. It was the largest monthly drop since 1999 after analysts only expected a decline of about 1.7%, according to Bloomberg."
Many of you already don’t eat bacon, and so what I just shared may not affect you, but what about a shortage of potatoes?Incredibly, it is being reported that some fast food outlets are now running out of French Fries. The following comes from Matt Stoller… "My favorite story is quintessentially American, and un-American, at the same time. It’s from a Florida realtor who was in a hurry and stopped at a Burger King for lunch. He saw a sign, “Sorry. No French Fries with any order. We have no potatoes.” At first he thought he was imagining things. What kind of fast food place runs out of fries? Is this, he wondered, a sign of things to come?"
It’s a good question. Fast food exists in a land of plenty, of surplus, of mass produced food with a reliable infrastructure of trucks, trains, farms, and distributors. Shortages of everyday goods conflicts not only with most of our lived experiences, but also with our very conception of who we are. There’s a name for this framework, and it’s called affluence. I really like how Stoller made that last point.
So many of us think that since we are the most prosperous nation on the entire planet that long-term shortages could never happen to us. But they are happening. And if you think that what we are experiencing now is bad, just wait until we get a few more years down the road.
From the very top to the very bottom, our entire economic system is being shaken. If you are expecting our national leaders to come in with some sort of a quick fix to this crisis, you are going to be waiting a really, really long time. The blind are leading the blind, and the months ahead are going to be very challenging."
“You Are a Cretin”
“You Are a Cretin”
by Brian Maher
"Your editor - we regret to inform you - is a cretin. This we have on the authority of reader Matt P. Matt’s note lists credentials indicating he is a man of high finance. He is evidently a grandee at a New York financial concern. From whom: "Brian Maher is a cretin. I just visited the website and saw his “The Most Dangerous Man” piece. Invoking bad statistics and the typical slew of denialist blather, he is clearly deficient in most intellectual respects. Thank you for sharing. Yep…" And we do thank Matt for sharing. We adore his ferocity, his heat, his righteous zeal to denounce our evils and to put us to rights. We have no doubt that he is with the angels... and that they are with him.
Bad Statistics: Matt refers of course to Sept. 23’s Reckoning, bearing the title he cites above. We do not know the statistics to which he refers - he did not specify our particular botchwork. Here were the only statistics we cited. The first: All evidence - we are told - indicates transmission is an indoor hazard.
Yet the state of Oregon requires facial coverings in most outdoor spaces where asocial distancing is not possible… including the vaccinated. Our men inform us the same state of Oregon has endured a 73% increase in cases since the edict entered effect - incidentally. That 73% is a figure plenty handsome. Would Oregon have endured an even greater increase absent the outside mask mandate? We do not know how the figures would differ to any plausible degree.
Yet we are willing to take correction if facts warrant. Recall, we are clearly deficient in most intellectual respects. Hopefully… by God’s grace... not all intellectual respects. Yet doubt haunts our sleepless and fitful nights. But to proceed…
Great Britain: Here is our second mangled statistic: In Great Britain, 75% of the deceased are vaccinated. We received recent correspondence from an overseas colleague. He cited reasons why the statistics lean toward Matt. That is, evidence why elevated vaccinated sicknesses and deaths do not equal vaccine failure:
"Of course the percentage of vaccinated in hospitals goes up. The more people you vaccinated, the higher the ratio of cases that you see will be those that “break through” the medical barrier. Simply because the ratio of unvaccinated to infected has gone down, as has the overall pool of infected/hospitalized. The vaccinated cases are simply a larger ratio of a smaller pool."
Just so. Perhaps there is justice here. But the 75% statistic we cited represents far more than an increase - if accurate. Of course… as we have argued previously, statistics are lovely liars. They often tell gorgeous tales. In improper hands they are devils. Thus we empty our hands of them… and place them into holier hands.
Higher Death Rate Among the Vaccinated: Here are two men alert to statistical wizardry, alert to statistical feints and ploys, alert to statistical fabulism… Here Messieurs Norman Fenton and Martin Neil - both masters of the statistical arts and sciences - penetrate the British numbers: It turns out that, even [accounting for this] age-adjusted mortality rate, the death rate is currently higher among the vaccinated than the unvaccinated… In contrast to the unvaccinated, the mortality rates for the vaccinated have initially increased from very low initial values, but then have increased, whilst that for the unvaccinated has decreased…
We can conclude that the Office for National Statistics' own data does not support the claims made for vaccine effectiveness/safety. Other professional statisticians may disagree. Yet we are fond of bad statistics. Thus these are the cherries we pluck from the branches. Here is another fine cherry, another bad statistic…"95% of Hospitalisations Are Vaccinated." Victoria, Australia, reported 867 fresh COVID cases Tuesday. And 375 require hospitalization. Of these, 81 require intensive treatment and 61 require ventilation. Were the majority vaccination-free? They were not emphatically not.
Victoria’s health minister claims: “Of the people who were in hospital yesterday, 78% were vaccinated and 17% were partially vaccinated”… That is, 95% of these miserables languishing in Victorian sick houses are vaccinated - and 78% vaccinated to the brim. The virus nonetheless has them by the throat. Now come home…
Some 70% of fully vaccinated inmates in one Texas prison suffered infection, says the Centers for Disease Control. It is also true that 93% of unvaccinated inmates likewise suffered affliction. The potions skewed the odds in a favorable direction. Yet is a 70% infection rate among the vaccinated a triumph?
A Hypothetical: If 70% of women taking birth control medicines soon began swelling in the abdomen… would the medicines be a success? And what if it sickened them - or murdered them? According to bad statistics disseminator and “cancelled” Dr. Joseph Mercola, the vacciness just may sicken and murder:
As of Sept. 3, the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) had received 675,591 reports of adverse events following vaccination. Of these, there were 14,506 deaths, 6,422 heart attacks and 5,371 cases of pericarditis or myocarditis. It is important to note that the VAERS has tracked adverse events since 1990. In 2019, there were 605 reports of deaths from all vaccines given. In 2021, there were 14,594 deaths reported in nine months. What if the numbers are far, far greater?
Although these numbers are significant, a 2010 Harvard study commissioned by the Department of Health and Human Services revealed data demonstrating the VAERS likely only represents approximately 1% of those who are injured.
Next we come to our third statistical example, the Israeli example. From the Sept. 23 Reckoning: In Israel, perhaps the most vaccinated nation of Earth, the vaccinated are likewise being savaged. The medical director at Jerusalem’s Herzog Hospital claims 95% of severe cases therein are vaccinated - fully vaccinated. Yet perhaps Jerusalem’s Herzog Hospital fails to represent the Israeli scene in its totality.
"Most of the Hospitalized Patients Are Actually Vaccinated": Science magazine nonetheless reported that… through Aug. 15… 59% of hospitalized Israelis had been fully vaccinated. A certain Uri Shalit - bioinformatician at the Israel Institute of Technology - claims "most of the hospitalized patients are actually vaccinated." Meantime, The Times of Israel reports “the current wave of coronavirus infections is surpassing anything seen in previous outbreaks.” Yet 84% of Israelis aged 12 and over are inoculated. Still the nation “boasts” being among the world’s highest number of cases per capita.
We expect to land in Matt’s canine house for peddling additional bad statistics. Then let Dr. Leana Wen join us. Dr. Wen is a CNN medical analyst. She is a vaccination enthusiast. Yet she concedes the vaccinated are presently more vulnerable to the Delta variant. They haul around a larger cargo of virus than the unvaccinated. And so she maintains the vaccinated hold the unvaccinated at gunpoint.
Vaccinated People Are Dangerous to Others: Perhaps it is the unvaccinated who should shun the vaccinated… rather than the reverse. Here is Dr. Christian Perronne - fellow of France’s renowned Institut Pasteur - and former vice president of the WHO’s European Advisory Group: "Vaccinated people are at risk of the new variants and transmission. It’s been proven in different countries… Unvaccinated people are not dangerous; vaccinated people are dangerous to others. It’s proven in Israel now, where I’m in contact with many physicians in Israel. They’re having big problems now; severe cases in hospitals are among vaccinated people. And in the U.K. also, you had a larger vaccination program and also there are problems."
Perhaps this fellow stretches the facts. We do not know. Yet of this we are presently confident: A “pandemic of the unvaccinated”… is a fabulous fiction.
Denialist Blather: What of Matt’s claim that we spew “denialist blather”? What are we in fact denying? We have never denied the virus is a potential murderer. We never denied it is a menace to many. The aged, the existing sick, the obese… all of these suffer elevated risk… as we have acknowledged.
We have never counseled against vaccination - only that readers should arm themselves with a full magazine of facts - to arrive at an informed decision. Yet what about the robust? What about the young? The odds favor them to astonishing degrees. Very few end up in the hospital or over the rainbow. Why should they require vaccination… especially with vaccines that may not be formidable? And why should the naturally immune require vaccination when studies indicate their armor is perhaps 27 times thicker than the vaccinateds’?
We nonetheless acknowledge Matt for his high service to the human species… by exposing our villainies and declaring us infamous. In token of his high service... We are dispatching Matt, by way of United States mail, a preliminary draft of a book we are currently preparing.We trust the high quality of the statistics therein will astound Matt and gobsmack him. They will knock him over. And they will persuade him. He will take our conclusions aboard.
The book bears this tentative title: "Trump Was Right: Drink Bleach, Cure COVID."
Cretinously yours,"
Brian Maher
Wednesday, September 29, 2021
“Tiny Chicken Wings; Banks To Expose Your Financial Privacy; Dollar Stores Boom”
Jeremiah Babe, PM 9/29/21:
“Tiny Chicken Wings;
Banks To Expose Your Financial Privacy; Dollar Stores Boom”
"Home Prices Soared By 259 Percent In The Greatest Real Estate Bubble: Housing Crash Coming!"
Full screen recommended.
"Home Prices Soared By 259 Percent In The
Greatest Real Estate Bubble: Housing Crash Coming!"
by Epic Economist
"The most splendid housing bubble in US history is ready to burst. Home prices are rising faster today than during the mortgage bubble of 2008. Policymakers are so alarmed about the record pace of home price appreciation that they announced tapering plans for the Federal Reserve's bond purchasing program, which would originally start in 2023, and now are set to begin at the end of this year. They're trying to avert a major financial catastrophe - much greater than what was seen during the previous housing crash. However, as inflation runs rampant, the looming housing bubble burst is likely to arrive sooner than they are bracing for. Several indicators show that the current housing market is nearing a peak similar to its late-2000s boom.
According to the latest reading of the National Case-Shiller Home Price Index, this month, the US real estate market has once again broken another record. Home prices surged 20% from a year ago, the biggest year-over-year increase in the data going back to 1987. But the index presents a nationwide average. When we look at the raging mania happening in metropolitan areas, we will find housing markets where prices soared up to 32% compared to last year's numbers. Needless to say, the Fed is getting seriously worried about this splendid home price inflation that is being added on top of the regular consumer price inflation that has hit 30-year highs. The mind-blowing price spikes recorded by the Case-Shiller Index across metropolitan areas show that home price inflation is at all-time highs.
According to the latest reading of the index, in the Los Angeles metro area, prices of single-family houses surged 1.4% last month and spiked by 19.1% year-over-year. However, in January 2000, all Case-Shiller Indices were set at 100. And today, the index value for Los Angeles is at 359, which means that house prices have skyrocketed by 259% since January 2000, despite the 2008 housing bubble burst. Moreover, the Consumer Price Index went up by 62% over the same period, which puts the LA metro area on the pedestal of being the most splendid housing bubble in the country, as explained by Wolf Richter in a recent analysis.
In the San Diego metro area, home prices increased by 1.6% this month and by 27.8% year-over-year. But since 2000, prices have skyrocketed by 255%. Similarly, in Seattle, where home prices went up by 25.5% year over year, since the latest boom, prices have soared a staggering 244%. The list goes on and on. But by now, you probably already got the point. The raging real estate boom is leaving millions of potential buyers out of the market. The truth is that the problem is even more acute in that corner of the market that once supported the American dream: the small entry-level home.
According to the real estate website Redfin, the median days on the market were just 12 in August, compared to nearly 36 days at the same time in 2020 and about 38 days in the same period of 2019. Some analysts, like Desmond Lachman, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, say that the Fed's move to artificially suppress interest rates has allowed the formation and inflation of the Everything Bubble, which includes homes, stocks, crypto, and collectibles.
“If you buy now, you’d be buying at the top,” Lachman says. “It’s not just the housing market but it’s all these other markets that are in danger of tanking.” Lachman fears the Fed will keep inflating the bubble. “It’s fun while they’re printing the money and everything is going up. But the question is what happens when interest rates go up. By keeping interest rates this low for this long, what they’ve done is they’ve created an everything bubble. It’s not just the housing market,” he added.
Bonds, housing, stocks and pretty much every asset will keep going up as long as the tens of trillions of printed dollars find some bubble to ride. We have entered a cycle in which everything will continue to hit unsustainable and giddy heights. These unreal valuations based on artificial money will keep causing so-called "unpredictable" crashes. All signs are there for those who want to see. But no one wants to worry about consequences these days. Just remember that bubbles don't always need a specific trigger event to burst. Eventually, they simply stop going up and that's when things start to fall apart. Even though it seems like there are no limits to this irrationality, in the real world, there are still limits to what central bank liquidity can do. And those policies are not just disturbing the imaginary world in which wealthy investors live, but also the reality of a slumping economy plagued by rising inflation."
Musical Interlude: Ludovico Einaudi, "I Giorni"
Full screen recommended.
Ludovico Einaudi, "I Giorni"
"A Look to the Heavens"
"To the eye, this cosmic composition nicely balances the Bubble Nebula at the right with open star cluster M52. The pair would be lopsided on other scales, though. Embedded in a complex of interstellar dust and gas and blown by the winds from a single, massive O-type star, the Bubble Nebula, also known as NGC 7635, is a mere 10 light-years wide. On the other hand, M52 is a rich open cluster of around a thousand stars. The cluster is about 25 light-years across.
Seen toward the northern boundary of Cassiopeia, distance estimates for the Bubble Nebula and associated cloud complex are around 11,000 light-years, while star cluster M52 lies nearly 5,000 light-years away. The wide telescopic field of view spans about 1.5 degrees on the sky or three times the apparent size of a full Moon."
Gregory Mannarino, PM 9/29/21: "MMRI Rising; FED Chair Admits 'Inflation Will Persist"
Gregory Mannarino, PM 9/29/21:
"MMRI Rising; FED Chair Admits 'Inflation Will Persist"
"The Fourth Turning: 'Dark Years Are Here'"
"The Fourth Turning: 'Dark Years Are Here'"
by Egon von Greyerz
"In an ephemeral world, few things survive. I am not talking about species or human beings whose existence on earth is also transitory. Instead I am referring to social and financial systems which are now coming to an end. In July 2009 I wrote an article called "The Dark Years Are Here." It was reprinted again in September 2018. Here is an extract from my original article:
“The Dark Years will be extremely severe for most countries both financially and socially. In many countries in the Western world there will be a severe depression and it will be the end of the welfare state. Most private and state pension schemes are also likely to collapse. It will be a worldwide depression but some countries may only have a deep recession. There will be famine, homelessness and misery resulting in social as well as political unrest. Different types of government leaders and regimes are likely to result from this.
How long will the Dark Years last? There is a book called ”The Fourth Turning” written by Neil Howe. He has identified a pattern that repeats itself every 80 years. The pattern has been extremely accurate in the Anglophile world. We have recently entered the Fourth Turning which is the final 20 years of the cycle. According to Howe we are in the early stages of a 20 year period of economic and institutional upheaval.
This is a period of Crisis when the fabric of society will change dramatically. Previous Fourth Turnings have been the American Revolution, Great Depression and World War II. According to Howe the Crisis will be substantially worse before it is over and it will last for another circa 20 years.
All of this is not good news and we hope that we and Howe are wrong regarding the severity and length of this crisis. But we fear that we are both right. We must stress again that never previously has the whole world entered a downturn simultaneously in such a fragile state both financially and economically which is why the Dark Years are likely to be so devastating and long lasting.”
The Inevitable Fall Of Society: Neil Howe’s book 'The Fourth Turning' had just been published when I wrote the article and it has since attained great fame. We are now in the final 8 years of his 20 year cycle and the most dramatic part of the cycle has just started which is the Fourth Turning.
In my 2009 article, I thought that the downturn was more imminent. But although I was slightly out on the timing, it doesn’t change the inevitable fall of the whole fabric of society in the next few years, be it commercial, financial or social.
Since 2009, global debt has doubled to $280 trillion and risk has increased exponentially. The final stage of the collapse started in August of 2019 with the central banks panicking and embarking on a massive money printing spree due to major problems in the financial system.
Coronavirus – A Catalyst: As I have stated previously, Coronavirus which started in early 2020, is not the reason for the current downturn in the world economy. It was just a catalyst. For some reason, when cycles are about to accelerate hard down, the trigger seems to be the worst possible. Although I have often talked about disease as one potential catalyst, I did not expect it to come now and cause a total lockdown of parts of the economy and society in so many countries.
When you are approaching the end of a financial era or cycle, it is very difficult to predict exactly how it will all end. Very few people understand that we are now living on borrowed time. But there is absolutely no doubt that we are now at the end of the end and of a major cycle, whether that takes 8 years as Howe predicts or it all happens much faster, is totally irrelevant.
The Unprepared Could Lose Everything: The risk is here now and if you don’t prepare for this, you are not just likely to lose whatever wealth you have but also your job, pension or social security depending on your circumstances. And if you live in a city, you are also likely to be affected by social unrest and crime plus a breakdown of services like medical care, schooling, law and order etc.
Many people are today trying to get out of the cities as a result of Coronavirus and the shut down of offices and shops as well as increased crime rates. For the wealthy minority, this is not a big problem but for normal people, it is not self-evident to just move out. But it is very clear that home working will become much more prevalent and many cities will become ghost towns. Tax revenue will decline dramatically and the authorities will not be able to keep up even simple services such as water, sanitation or cleaning. Also, many retail outlets and restaurants as well as offices in cities will close due to lack of customers, crime and out of town or online shopping. This trend has of course already started in many cities. In the City in London (Financial District), there are now very few people working. Only some shops or restaurants are open and the ones that are, are hemorrhaging financially.
The Deluge Could Come Sooner: Coming back to Howe’s 8 remaining years of the Fourth Turning, it is of course an approximate number and not absolute. The way I see it is that it will take up to 8 years and maybe less for the artificial edifice that the world has created to collapse. But it could also happen a lot quicker.
What I mean by artificial edifice is firstly all the fake assets that have been created due to central banks deliberate profligacy. Since the creation of the Fed in 1913, the bankers have taken total control of the money system. From 1971 when Nixon closed the gold window, it became a total free for all for the (central) bankers. They could create unlimited amounts of money for their own benefit. Standing nearest the printing press is a major advantage when you print money. President Mugabe in Zimbabwe discovered this. By using the money from the printing press first, he could spend it quickly or buy dollars before the value of the printed money collapsed.
Printed Money Doesn't Reach Ordinary People: In the US, the Fed has since the latest crisis started in August 2019, printed $3.3 trillion, and most of it since March 2020. Very little of this money has reached ordinary people. If it had, it would have meant a contribution of $25,000 to every one of the 130 million households in the US. Although the printed is basically worthless, it might have had some short term beneficial effect on the broad economy.
But no, money printing is not for ordinary people. It is for the bankers and the wealthy and add more fuel or liquidity to already massively overvalued asset markets rather than reaching the people who really need it. This has caused the Nasdaq to go up by 62% since late March and the Dow by 52%.
DOW 50,000 – GOLD $50,000? In a recent article I discussed that we could see a liquidity fuelled meltup in stocks making the Dow double to say 50,000. Since I expect the Dow/Gold ratio to reach 1 to 1 or below (like in 1980 Dow 850 Gold $850), gold could at the same time reach $50,000 as inflation rises. As I consider stocks overbought and overvalued today, there is no fundamental or even technical reason for this to happen. Since markets today have nothing to do with fundamentals or sound valuation principles but are only liquidity driven, this kind of move is not impossible.
But investors must understand that I think it would be very high risk to stay fully invested in stocks currently. This is like buying the Nasdaq in 1999 to take part in the final rise but then to ride it all the way down to an 80% loss.
Much better instead to own gold, which fundamentally and technically is still early in a long term uptrend, kindly fuelled daily by central bank money printing. If the 50,000 forecast for the Dow and Gold would materialize, the Dow would double and Gold would go up 25x which is clearly a much better risk.
The US Is Bankrupt: Let’s face it, the US is bankrupt. No country, company or individual could lose money every year for 90 years and still be standing. (see my article). Normally the currency of such a country should have faded into oblivion. Well the dollar almost has since it is down 98% in real terms or gold since 1971 and down 85% since 2000. The only reason the dollar hasn’t disappeared totally yet is due to the Petrodollar. A major part of dollar assets are kept outside of the US due to the dollar liquidity created by the petrodollar.
The Petrodollar was created in the early 1970s by Nixon and the then Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. They feared after the closing of the gold window that the dollar’s reserve currency role would diminish significantly. To save the dollar, Saudi Arabia was offered total military protection by the US on the condition that all oil trading would only be in dollars. Saudi Arabia would also buy substantial military equipment from the US.
The Imminent Demise Of The Dollar: This was a very clever arrangement and is the sole reason why the dollar is still standing. But the combination of a rapidly deteriorating US financial position and countries like China, Russia and Iran gradually trading in their own currencies, will soon precipitate the dollar’s demise.
Comparing currencies to each other is really a futile exercise since they are all going to ZERO. There is no prize for getting to the bottom first. Still in this exercise of relativity, it looks like the dollar will reach the bottom before the others. Having already lost 98% of its value in the last 50 years, the final 2% will not take that long. But remember that this 2% fall means a 100% loss of the dollar’s value from here.
Many people are very negative about the Euro due to the major problems in the EU. It is totally correct that the Euro is also a very weak and artificial currency. The Euro is virtually worth the same in dollars as on its launch on January 1st 1999. But right now, the Euro, in spite of its problems, technically looks stronger than the dollar.
So a crashing dollar over the next few years is virtually guaranteed and will act as a detonator which will blow up the US economy.
Also in the next 2-3 years we will see collapsing debt markets in the US and globally. Most debt in the world consists of printed money with no underlying real assets backing. Massively overvalued assets is backed by debt which will become totally worthless since it is only based on manufactured money issued by a printing press or a computer. When $10s of trillions are created with no labour, goods or service having been produced, that money clearly has ZERO value.
Interest Rates To Rise Strongly: We will not have permanent zero rates as the FED and Ray Dalio say. There are two virtual certainties coming before the imminent mega crisis is over. The first will be the collapse of the currency system as I discussed above. The second certainty is the collapse of credit markets including bonds. The manipulation of rates will totally fail. Central banks will try to keep short rates low but will lose control of the long rates. As insolvent governments and corporates start to default, investors, including sovereign, will dump bonds.
Bond prices will collapse and rates go to at least the levels in the 1970s to early 1980s of 15-20%. The combination of hyperinflation and defaulting borrowers will see many bonds going to zero and rates to infinity. As long rates rise, they will pull the short rates up regardless of central banks attempts to hold them down. This will lead to the demise of the bond market. Obviously, central banks will frenetically print trillions or even quadrillions as derivatives disappear into a black hole. But to no avail except for panic and hyperinflation.
Not The Time For Omphaloskepsis: So now is not the time for omphaloskepsis (navel gazing) or for investors to gloat about their stock market gains. Because the world is now entering a phase not seen for hundreds or maybe 2,000 years. Yes, stocks could meltup one final time before the total collapse but if they do, that will most likely be accompanied by a very weak dollar.
Don't Measure Your Wealth In Worthless Fiat Currencies: To measure your assets in a fiat currency, be it dollars, euros or pounds, is absolute madness. Why do you measure your wealth in something that in real terms has declined by 98% since 1971 and 85% since 2000. It might feel good for a moment but when you realise that these gains are just paper profits that are not only meaningless but will evaporate totally in the next few years as stocks and paper money implode together.
And don’t for a second believe that the assets you own whether they are stocks, bonds or property are really worth the thousands or millions that they are valued at in fake money. The imminent wealth destruction will soon reveal to investors that their assets are only worth a fraction of the imaginary value they have today.
Central banks will not save the world, they can’t. Because how can you solve a debt problem with more worthless debt or how can you create wealth by issuing more debt. That Ponzi scheme is now finished for a very long time. Physical gold (and silver) will in the next few years reveal the total delusion that the financial system has rested on. People who are not protected should take heed."
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