Jeremiah Babe, PM 3/4/22:
"Nuclear Meltdown Scorches Markets; Food Crisis Begins;
Grids, Payment Systems Down; Buy Food Now"
So, we rise from the rubble...
Friday, March 4, 2022
Musical Interlude: Gandalf, “Once in a Star-Brightened Night”
Full screen recommended.
Gandalf, “Once in a Star-Brightened Night”
"A Look to the Heavens"
“Massive stars, abrasive winds, mountains of dust, and energetic light sculpt one of the largest and most picturesque regions of star formation in the Local Group of Galaxies. Known as N11, the region is visible on the upper right of many images of its home galaxy, the Milky Way neighbor known as the Large Magellanic Clouds (LMC).
The above image was taken for scientific purposes by the Hubble Space Telescope and reprocessed for artistry by an amateur to win the Hubble's Hidden Treasures competition. Although the section imaged above is known as NGC 1763, the entire N11 emission nebula is second in LMC size only to 30 Doradus. Studying the stars in N11 has shown that it actually houses three successive generations of star formation. Compact globules of dark dust housing emerging young stars are also visible around the image.”
"We All Know..."
“We all know that something is eternal. And it ain’t houses and it ain’t names, and it ain’t earth, and it ain’t even the stars… everybody knows in their bones that something is eternal, and that something has to do with human beings. All the greatest people ever lived have been telling us that for five thousand years and yet you’d be surprised how people are always losing hold of it. There’s something way down deep that’s eternal about every human being.”
- Thornton Wilder
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“I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge.
That myth is more potent than history.
I believe that dreams are more powerful than facts.
That hope always triumphs over experience.
That laughter is the only cure for grief.
And I believe that love is stronger than death.”
- Robert Fulghum
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“For Those Who Have Died”
“Eleh Ezkerah” (“These We Remember”)
“Tis a fearful thing
To love
What death can touch.
To love, to hope, to dream,
And oh, to lose.
A thing for fools, this,
Love,
But a holy thing,
To love what death can touch.
For your life has lived in me;
Your laugh once lifted me;
Your word was a gift to me.
To remember this brings painful joy.
Tis a human thing, love,
A holy thing,
To love
What death can touch.”
- Chaim Stern
Graphic: “Into The Silent Land”,
by Henry Pegram, 1905
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“We are travelers on a cosmic journey, stardust, swirling and dancing in the eddies and whirlpools of Infinity. Life is Eternal. We have stopped for a moment to encounter each other, to meet, to love, to share. This is a precious moment. It is a little parenthesis in Eternity.”
- Paulo Coelho
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“Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.”
- Dr. Seuss
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And we shall meet again…
Full screen recommended.
Moody Blues, “The Day We Meet Again”
A Timely Repost: “Neuroscience Says Listening to This Song Reduces Anxiety by Up to 65 Percent”
Full screen highly recommended.
“Neuroscience Says Listening to This Song
Reduces Anxiety by Up to 65 Percent”
By Melanie Curtin
“Everyone knows they need to manage their stress. When things get difficult at work, school, or in your personal life, you can use as many tips, tricks, and techniques as you can get to calm your nerves. So here’s a science-backed one: make a playlist of the 10 songs found to be the most relaxing on earth. Sound therapies have long been popular as a way of relaxing and restoring one’s health. For centuries, indigenous cultures have used music to enhance well-being and improve health conditions.
Now, neuroscientists out of the UK have specified which tunes give you the most bang for your musical buck. The study was conducted on participants who attempted to solve difficult puzzles as quickly as possible while connected to sensors. The puzzles induced a certain level of stress, and participants listened to different songs while researchers measured brain activity as well as physiological states that included heart rate, blood pressure, and rate of breathing.
According to Dr. David Lewis-Hodgson of Mindlab International, which conducted the research, the top song produced a greater state of relaxation than any other music tested to date. In fact, listening to that one song- “Weightless”- resulted in a striking 65 percent reduction in participants’ overall anxiety, and a 35 percent reduction in their usual physiological resting rates. That is remarkable.
Equally remarkable is the fact the song was actually constructed to do so. The group that created “Weightless”, Marconi Union, did so in collaboration with sound therapists. Its carefully arranged harmonies, rhythms, and bass lines help slow a listener’s heart rate, reduce blood pressure and lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol.
When it comes to lowering anxiety, the stakes couldn’t be higher. Stress either exacerbates or increases the risk of health issues like heart disease, obesity, depression, gastrointestinal problems, asthma, and more. More troubling still, a recent paper out of Harvard and Stanford found health issues from job stress alone cause more deaths than diabetes, Alzheimer’s, or influenza.
In this age of constant bombardment, the science is clear: if you want your mind and body to last, you’ve got to prioritize giving them a rest. Music is an easy way to take some of the pressure off of all the pings, dings, apps, tags, texts, emails, appointments, meetings, and deadlines that can easily spike your stress level and leave you feeling drained and anxious.
Of the top track, Dr. David Lewis-Hodgson said, “‘Weightless’ was so effective, many women became drowsy and I would advise against driving while listening to the song because it could be dangerous.” So don’t drive while listening to these, but do take advantage of them:
10. “We Can Fly,” by Rue du Soleil (Café Del Mar)
9. “Canzonetta Sull’aria,” by Mozart
8. “Someone Like You,” by Adele
7. “Pure Shores,” by All Saints
6. “Please Don’t Go,” by Barcelona
5. “Strawberry Swing,” by Coldplay
4. “Watermark,” by Enya
3. “Mellomaniac (Chill Out Mix),” by DJ Shah
2. “Electra,” by Airstream
1. “Weightless,” by Marconi Union
I made a public playlist of all of them on Spotify that runs about 50 minutes (it’s also downloadable).”
The Poet: Robert Frost, “Acceptance”
“Acceptance”
“When the spent sun throws up its rays on cloud
And goes down burning into the gulf below,
No voice in nature is heard to cry aloud
At what has happened.
Birds, at least must know
It is the change to darkness in the sky.
Murmuring something quiet in her breast,
One bird begins to close a faded eye;
Or overtaken too far from his nest,
Hurrying low above the grove, some waif
Swoops just in time to his remembered tree.
At most he thinks or twitters softly, ‘safe!’
Now let the night be dark for all of me.
Let the night be too dark for me to see
Into the future. Let what will be, be.”
- Robert Frost
"Could Be Worse..."
"I'd been in hairier situations than this one. Actually, it's sort
of depressing, thinking how many times I'd been in them.
But if experience had taught me anything, it was this:
No matter how screwed up things are, they can get a whole lot worse."
- Jim Butcher
Dig your way out, they said...
"Spheres of Influence"
"Spheres of Influence"
by Bill Bonner
Buenos Aires, Argentina - "We left you yesterday wondering… Are we entering a New Era, where energy will be hard to come by, you can’t trust the money, and you can’t depend on the rule of law? What kind of world is that? Why… it’s right in front of our eyes. It’s Argentina! A joke making its way around the streets of Buenos Aires: How can we punish the Russians? Cut them off from trade? Block money transfers? Send troops? Make a no-fly zone? No… just make them follow the Argentine model. That will ruin them just like it ruined us.
The Argentines held prices low for fuel in order to appease voters. Result: power shortages. They fund much of their government spending (only half the people in the country work…) with printing press money. Result: inflation, now about 50%. The system has become drenched in corruption. People don’t trust the money or the political or the justice systems. Result: little investment; economic stagnation and poverty are widespread.
But it is not the Russians who are adopting the Argentine model; It is the Biden Team and the international ‘liberal’ order that is taking to it. The gist of our message today: While the Argentine model is largely dysfunctional, at least here it is applied with a laissez-faire incompetence that leaves it almost pleasantly tolerable. We doubt it will be so agreeable when it is administered by Pete Buttigieg, Justin Trudeau, Emmanuel Macron and Kamala Harris.
Unreal Money: Last evening, we stuffed our pockets with cash and ventured out for dinner. Walking along the streets of the Recoleta area, the shops were full of expensive clothes and furniture. Stylish people walked their dogs… families came out to restaurants… there were only a couple of beggars. Altogether, this district of Buenos Aires is much more agreeable than, say, Baltimore.
We chose a sidewalk café. The waiters were professional. Everyone was polite and well-dressed. We dined on a flank steak, which we shared between the two of us; even then we couldn’t finish it. And we ordered a bottle of expensive wine. ‘Yacochuya’ comes from a winery near our farm; it was listed on the menu for 8,700 pesos. That’s about $43 at the black market exchange rate – a very reasonable price for such a good wine.
Yes, dear reader, you can live well – even in an inflation ridden, corrupt and semi-functional country. Prices rise, but they have a hard time keeping up with the fall of the currency. So, real prices actually fall. But… you can’t depend on the government… or its money. You need real money of your own.
Our subject in these postings is money. But money is more than something you use to buy a café latte. It is a ‘social construct,’ say the academics. It regulates and registers the connections between people. One is lender, the other borrower. One is wage slave, the other is his master. One takes, the other makes.
In an honest system, with honest money, an honest man judges his worth to the rest of society largely (but not entirely) by how much money he has. He gets money by providing goods and services to others. The more he gives, the more he gets. And the measure of his net contribution to society is how much he gets that he doesn’t spend… his savings, in other words. At death, the ledger is closed…and we see whether he has made a positive contribution to society… or been a drain on it. Of course, we humans are only occasionally honest. We cheat regularly… often… and as much as we can get away with. Which is what makes the world of money so interesting.
And the most interesting event in the money world lately happened last week… when the US and its ‘western, liberal’ partners undermined their own money by imposing conditions on how it can be used. They ‘weaponized’ it… and turned the weapon against even honest Russian. A man might have earned a fortune by supplying oil to heat houses in Western Europe. But now, he may be cut off from his money. Ka-boom… he’s now financially dead.
Yes, it is a wicked world, dear reader, and we are watching an episode of extreme cunning and wickedness play out before us. The ‘western, liberal’ intelligentsia has decided that the Russians are the bad guys. They have imposed ‘sanctions.’ Almost every news item tells us that Putin is an ogre. Congress said it loud and clear in a special act, voicing its condemnation of Russia and its support for brave little Ukraine. Only three members voted against it; they were portrayed in the press as if they had voted to crucify Christ. Newsweek: "The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) tweeted a response to the resolution, calling the no votes from the Republican congressmen "truly despicable behavior."
Entertainers, too, jumped on the bandwagon. Here’s Stevie Nicks: "This time, Vladimir - you went too far. You crossed a sacred line. You tried to take a beloved country away from its beloved people."
Spheres of Influence: As they say on Wall Street, ‘when everyone is thinking the same thing, no one is really thinking.’ Ms. Nicks should have spent 5 minutes at Wikipedia. She would have discovered that that the country was only stitched together by the Bolsheviks in 1917… and then became independent in 1991. It has a very long history of internal pogroms, massacres, imposed famines and warfare; it has usually only been held together by some outside power – such as Russia.
The Monroe Doctrine gives the US a ‘sphere of influence.’ Dozens of times, it has invaded, persuaded, and bullied its neighbors. It invaded Nicaragua twice… and also supported a guerrilla war against the government there. In the “Cuban Missile Crisis” it took the world to the brink of nuclear war, insisting that the Soviets remove their missiles from Cuba. The CIA even sponsored an invasion of the island. But the US was never sanctioned. The dollar did not collapse. Rich Americans did not have their yachts seized in foreign ports.
We take no sides in the Russo-Ukrainian conflict. But isn’t it possible that Russia has its sphere of influence too? Couldn’t a decent person of sound mind think so? And when US warmongers helped to overthrow the elected pro-Moscow government in Kyiv, in 2014, and handpicked their puppet replacement – “Yats (Arseniy Yatsenyuk) is the guy” – mightn’t they have crossed a sacred line too?
But as with the War on Terror… the Bailout of Wall Street… and the Great Plague, no contrary opinion is permitted. Newsweek is on the story: "Virginia substitute teacher was suspended from the Arlington Public Schools district after saying he understood and approved of Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision to attack Ukraine."
And here’s the New York Daily News: "Famed Russian soprano Anna Netrebko has withdrawn from her upcoming performances at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City after refusing to distance herself from Russian President Vladimir Putin, Met officials said Thursday."
Even in our church in Ireland, the organist played the Ukrainian national anthem, a gesture of ‘solidarity,’ he explained. Why no solidarity with the Russians? How can they know? Can they really tell good from evil on the remote pampas of central Eurasia? Which one would be best for the Ukrainian people – puppets from Washington… or those from Moscow?
And how could they be so sure that masks and mandates were the best way to handle the COVID virus? How did they know the vaccines were safe… or that even people who were not at risk should be forced to take them? We don’t know either. But we are fairly sure that Stevie Nicks has no more of an idea than we do.
More to come… on what the western elite has against Russia… and how the conventions and institutions that built our prosperity – including the dollar – are now being dismantled by the “Davos Deciders.” Stay tuned..."
"Cyber Attacks are Coming for You and Your Bank"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly 3/4/22:
"Cyber Attacks are Coming for You and Your Bank"
"It is time to take your cybersecurity seriously. From your cell phone, your home computer to your bank, It is a matter of time when there will be a cyberattack. Gas prices are going through the roof and there is no end in sight. Inflation is out of control."
"Reality Check: A "No-Fly-Zone" Over Ukraine Means WW3"
"Reality Check:
A "No-Fly-Zone" Over Ukraine Means WW3"
by OffGuardian
"Western pundits and journalists are all in a flutter over Ukraine. They think it’s terribly exciting, and want to be seen to be tough and decisive. Their internal monologues probably feature the word “Churchillian” quite a lot. Naturally, that means a lot of them are saying some really stupid things.
This includes widespread calls for a NATO-imposed “No-Fly Zone” over Ukrainian airspace. This proposal is all over the media, even coming out of the porcine mouth of Sir Keir Starmer, the leader of the UK’s Labour party:
"Labour will speak to the Government over no-fly zone, Keir Starmer says." https://t.co/vUdag0Q49q The Independent (@Independent) March 1, 2022
A dip through the #NoFlyZone hashtag on Twitter will introduce you to hundreds and hundreds of people, many of them probably NATO shill accounts, all ramping of the calls for a no-fly zone. It will also demonstrate that huge numbers of these people have no idea what a “no-fly zone” actually is or how it works. We encountered this same issue in Syria a few years ago. After the Russians entered the war at the invitation of Bashar al Assad, Western journalists got all jingoistic and started calling for no-fly zones. We had to explain how they worked back then, too.
As we recently of our editors summarized on Twitter…"This pathetic idea non-military ppl have of what a #NoFlyZone is. As if it was a magic dome of cozy protection that just appears & makes everyone safe without a shot fired. Think for just a second about what bullshit that is pic.twitter.com/AZaFnXc31j OffGuardian (@OffGuardian0) March 2, 2022
A no-fly zone is not a magic dome of cozy protection put in place with a snap of the fingers and enforced without a shot being fired. A no-fly zone is a declaration of war. It does NOT save lives. That’s a lie to trick stupid people into calling for escalation. A no-fly zone will require NATO to shoot down any Russian aircraft that enter the airspace. It will lead to inevitable retaliation from the Russians who will shoot down NATO aircraft & attack NATO anti-aircraft batteries. Thousands more will die immediately.
And since Russia already has its nuclear weapons on high alert any imposition of a no-fly zone Ukraine has a very high chance of immediate escalation to nuclear war. And no, that would NOT be an exchange of tactical battlefield nukes. It would be strategic ICBMs. Thousands of kilotons of nuclear weapons unleashed on every major city in the Northern hemisphere from San Diego to Moscow. The war would suddenly be a mushroom cloud in YOUR backyard.
This is why even the Pentagon won’t contemplate a no-fly zone Ukraine. It’s global suicide. No-fly zones do not save lives, they are not designed to. They are designed to escalate. To all the people out there happily sharing the #NoFlyZoneinUkraineNow hashtag: If you really want to save lives get educated about what’s actually going on in Ukraine. Stop being a manipulated war-puppet spewing hashtags you don’t understand."
Jim Kunstler, "No More Russian Dressing For You!"
"No More Russian Dressing For You!"
by Jim Kunstler
"Say what you will about Russia’s Cleanup-in-Aisle-Four operation in Ukraine. It sure changed the subject from the murderous Covid-19 madness - cooked up by political therapists who have all the answers for our salvation - to the hard realities of power politics. And at just the right time, too, as ever more hard data leaks through the bastions of captured corporate media to morally indict the criminal public health establishment and their elected enablers throughout Western Civ.
In other words, the whole Covid story was falling apart. Though the CDC and the FDA were hiding and fudging all their numbers as best they could, the insurance actuaries and the humble morticians had no such inhibitions about reporting an upsurge in strange deaths. Whistles were blowing over the botched Pfizer approval trials. The world was beginning to grok how dishonest, deadly, and sinister the whole Covid caper really was - from the engineered and patented origins of the disease, to the lethal mechanisms of the “vaccines”- when it became necessary to divert the world’s attention. Plus, the oaf Justin Trudeau badly tipped his hand on the West’s tilt into tyranny… and now American truckers were revving up their convoys… someone, please, do something! Get Russia back in the center ring!
And so, the floundering establishment activated the still-potent workings of mass formation to fire up what looked like Act One of World War Three. Forgive me for saying what I will about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The US authorities wanted it. They set it up nakedly by replaying the Cuban Missile Crisis in reverse, and they refused to negotiate in good faith as to their using Ukraine as a forward base for NATO on Russia’s border. The Russians couldn’t have been plainer about their intentions. They’ve been telling the US to keep Ukraine neutral for over a decade, to not outfit the place for military shenanigans. What part of that did America not understand? Every part, apparently - and on-purpose.
It raises the question, of course, as to whether we actually have an interest in that faraway land. I think the answer is: not hardly, except as a utensil of control and antagonism against Russia. As to the people of Ukraine, let’s be honest: we put them in harm’s way, and then we cried crocodile tears over them - most mawkishly in the increasingly bizarre ritual we call the State of the Union Message. All those yellow and blue lapel pins and fashion accessories. What bathetic pretense.
Who in the US government, from our founding in 1789 to 1991 — while Ukraine was part of Russia in one way or another - gave a passing thought to Ukraine? Answer: nobody. And then, after the crack-up of the USSR, Ukraine was “in play,” culminating in the 2014 CIA-sponsored “color revolution” that ousted then-president Viktor Yanukovych, who was inclined to join Russia’s Eurasian Customs Union of trade relations rather than the US wished-for NATO or EU. And ever since then it has been one American intrigue after another - including a brisk trade in grift and bribery by the Biden family, the Clinton syndicate, the next-gen of Kerrys, and other entitled elites from over here selling their influence.
And now the economic sanctions on Russia, which are sure to blow back on the countries issuing them. Europe has to pretend that it doesn’t need Russian oil and gas, that it doesn’t need cheap uranium to run their nuke power plants, that they don’t need the Baikonur Cosmodrome to launch their satellites, and so on. More likely, these moves will accelerate the collapse of Western Civ’s banking system, stock and bond markets, and erode the US dollar’s role as the global reserve currency - a longstanding “exorbitant privilege” for getting stuff from all over the world in exchange for promises to pay some Tuesday in the distant future.
The reader may ask: why does this blog appear to take Russia’s side in the current conflict against the US and our supposed allies? Answer: Why would you trust a government (ours) and its captive news media after years of their blatant lying and tyrannical over-reach? These parties appear to be at war against their own people, that is, against us - certainly more than Russia is. Especially in the historic moment when all our mendacious “narratives” are being exposed as false? Russian Collusion? Indictments underway and more to follow. Covid-19? A mega-crime of mass homicide spawned by a matrix of pharmaceutical racketeers, corrupt government officials, and accomplice news organizations. Stolen elections? Don’t, for Gawd’s sake, even try looking at the slime trail of evidence. I won’t bother listing the many transgressions of Wokery against our culture and history. And all of sudden, it appears a lot of American citizens have had enough of being f**ked around. I’m with them.
Now consider this: What if it turns out that Russia can complete its Cleanup-in-Aisle-Four operation relatively quickly, with a minimized loss of life and damage to the everyday infrastructure of Ukraine, and arrange things there afterward so that Ukraine is not a menace to anyone, either Russia or the West? I sincerely believe this is their intention - just as I sincerely believe that their leadership is actually sane, and ours appears not to be. Perhaps Russia will even offer Ukraine (or its re-arranged regions) assistance in recovering from the foolishness it played along with to its own sorrow? What if Russia actually has no intention of starting World War Three? Will we keep trying to start it anyway?
Whoever is behind “Joe Biden” has done all they can to derail American Life, and the feckless leadership of Euroland has also seemed avid to trash its future. There is a welling movement, in America, at least, to resist all that, to sweep these degenerates out of power, and make a concerted course correction in the direction of sanity, rectitude, liberty, and generosity of spirit toward each other. An awful lot of trouble has already been set in motion by the idiots running things. There is a difficult slog ahead. Is your head screwed on? Where will you stand?"
Gregory Mannarino, "Commodity Prices Continue To SKYROCKET; Safety/Fear Trade In Play"
Gregory Mannarino, AM 3/4/22:
"Commodity Prices Continue To SKYROCKET;
Safety/Fear Trade In Play"
"Economic Market Snapshot 3/4/22"
Down the rabbit hole of psychopathic greed and insanity...
Only the consequences are real - to you!
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"Economic Market Snapshot 3/4/22"
Updated as available.
MarketWatch Market Summary, Live Updates
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CNN Market Data:
CNN Fear And Greed Index:
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Latest Market Analysis, Updated 2/7/22
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A comprehensive, essential daily read.
Feb. 21st to 22nd 2022
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Financial Stress Index
"The OFR Financial Stress Index (OFR FSI) is a daily market-based snapshot of stress in global financial markets. It is constructed from 33 financial market variables, such as yield spreads, valuation measures, and interest rates. The OFR FSI is positive when stress levels are above average, and negative when stress levels are below average. The OFR FSI incorporates five categories of indicators: credit, equity valuation, funding, safe assets and volatility. The FSI shows stress contributions by three regions: United States, other advanced economies, and emerging markets."
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Daily Job Cuts
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Commentary, highly recommended:
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"The more I see of the monied classes,
the better I understand the guillotine."
- George Bernard Shaw
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Oh yeah...
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And now... The End Game...
Greg Hunter, "Weekly News Wrap-Up 3/4/22"
"Weekly News Wrap-Up 3/4/22"
By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
"Get ready for even bigger inflation than you have already seen. The indebted global economy was already listing from all the unpayable debt. Now inflation has made a direct hit. The economic ship is going down, and inflation is surging. It’s all been put into hyperdrive with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It’s not going to end anytime soon.
Even though there have been some talks between Russia and Ukraine, the fighting is not stopping. Russia keeps attacking, and it looks like, at this pace, Ukraine will be destroyed. Russia is attacking on another front, and that is the economic one. Russia is turning off its gas and oil to Europe, and Germany is taking a big hit. How will Germany be making cars or heating their homes with only windmills and solar? It’s not, and that, too, is going to get much worse.
There is new information coming out about how the CV19 injections change your DNA and make dangerous spike proteins. Swedish researchers at Lund University say that is exactly what is happening, and the CDC has told the world that would never happen. Pfizer is also denying the findings, but the truth will win out. A new report from the UK says the “vaccinated” count for 9 out of 10 CV19 deaths in England. That certainly looks like the vax keeps killing."
Join Greg Hunter of USAWatchdog.com as he talks about
these stories and more in the Weekly News Wrap-Up .
Musical Interlude: Leonard Cohen, "Hallelujah"
Full screen recommended.
Leonard Cohen, "Hallelujah"
"I did my best, it wasn't much,
I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch.
I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you.
And even though it all went wrong,
I'll stand before the Lord of song
With nothing, nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah..."
Thursday, March 3, 2022
Must Watch! Gerald Celente, "More Sanctions on Russia, More Inflation for All"
Full screen recommended.
Very Strong Language Alert!
Gerald Celente, PM 3/3/22:
"More Sanctions on Russia, More Inflation for All"
"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."
As only Gerald can... lol
"35 Signs That Prove That The Working Class Is Being Systematically Wiped Out"
Full screen recommended.
"35 Signs That Prove That The Working
Class Is Being Systematically Wiped Out"
by Epic Economist
"The American working class is shriveling up and dying right before our eyes. Without an abundance of good jobs, more and more people are simply exiting the labor force and living off federal assistance programs, a phenomenon experts say is likely to cause a ‘long-term structural problem’ in the U.S. economy.
Millions of Americans are out of work, but official unemployment numbers only show a fraction of what is really going on. The way unemployment data was calculated has changed several times over the past few years, and the figures released by government agencies tend to sugarcoat the reality for entirely political reasons. Last month, hundreds of thousands of people have “dropped out of the labor force”, but labor statistics from January actually suggest that the shortage of workers is actually easing.
Needless to say, that’s far from the truth. In fact, recent surveys have exposed that a staggering number of workers are planning to leave the U.S. workforce in 2022. Recent stats also show that there simply are not enough ‘good jobs’ to go around anymore, and the vast majority of the population is working in low-wage positions. However, working-class Americans seem to be waking up to the fact that the main asset they have to offer in the marketplace is their labor, and their decision to quit their posts to seek better compensation is forcing companies to raise wages.
Over the past few decades, U.S. companies have largely outsourced their production to Asian countries so that they could profit from cheaper labor costs. Millions of factory jobs have been lost in that process as domestic production declined -- and these positions aren’t coming back. But recent events have exposed just how vulnerable supply chains are, and with problems compounding by the day, businesses are having to come up with new strategies to attract American workers back to the labor force.
Unfortunately, up until this point, wage gains haven’t been very impressive and with inflation running at the hottest rate in 40 years, workers are actually losing money as their buying power falls to the lowest level recorded since the 1980s.
At the same time, homelessness and poverty are exploding in every corner of the country as many families that used to have stable lives continue to struggle to make ends meet and are losing their homes due to soaring housing and rental prices. It’s safe to say that the disruptions the industry has faced so far are just beginning. Things are about to get a whole lot worse, and with global tensions escalating and companies shutting down thousands of factories, the labor market is going to get tighter and tighter.
Today, wealth is more centralized than ever before. Most of the wealth being produced by our economy goes to a very small group of people at the very top of the food chain. And while the rich get richer, the working class continues to suffer from debt, surging prices for food, energy, gas, and housing, and low-paid jobs that do not allow them to keep up with the soaring cost of living.
With both the middle and the working class shrinking at an alarming rate, the inequality gap is growing wider in the U.S., leaving most part of the population at the brink of financial ruin. But for the first time in our modern era, companies that have been profiting from overseas labor over the past decades are now realizing that they’ve taken American workers for granted and that worsening conditions in the labor market are leading to significantly lower profits as consumer spending slows down.
America is seemingly headed towards a very dark future, and since the very foundation of our economy is cracking and crumbling, the collapse is going to be much more brutal than most people dare to imagine. For that reason, today we gathered 35 facts that prove that the U.S. working class is being systematically wiped out."
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"Scariest Economy I Have Seen Is Getting Worse; The FED Will Crash The Economy And Destroy The Dollar"
Jeremiah Babe, PM 3/3/22:
"Scariest Economy I Have Seen Is Getting Worse;
The FED Will Crash The Economy And Destroy The Dollar"
"Hit by Friendly Fire"; "The West’s Most Potent Weapon"
"Hit by Friendly Fire"
by Jim Rickards
"The Russian advance into Ukraine continues, with Russia taking the key city of Kherson today. That’s big. Kherson is a chokepoint on the Dnieper River that flows from the Black Sea to Kyiv. A rough analogue would be Grant's capture of Vicksburg on the Mississippi in the Civil War. When you control the river, you control commerce and military resupply to the interior. Meanwhile, the important cities of Kharkiv and Mariupol are under siege. When they fall, Putin will have a line of control from Kherson to Kharkiv and a land bridge from Luhansk to Crimea. This traps Ukrainian forces behind the line. Odessa is next.
The media have been hyperventilating about Putin being "bogged down" outside Kyiv. But Kyiv is last on the menu, not first. The Ukrainian people are being urged to form a resistance and to engage in guerrilla tactics. Many likely will. But that call strongly suggests confidence in the ability of the regular Ukrainian forces to stop Russia is fading fast.
But of equal or greater significance for much of the world is the financial aspect of the war. Financial sanctions on Russia have dominated the headlines this past week, as leaders of the EU, the U.S. and NATO have unleashed a barrage of economic and banking sanctions.
The greatest casualty has been the Russian ruble (RUB), which has collapsed about 50% in the past 10 days relative to the dollar and the other major currencies. One impact of this in Russia was a run on banks and ATMs by citizens trying to get what currency they could, probably to spend it on food and staples before prices went up. A grossly devalued ruble will certainly cause inflation in Russian prices, although that does not happen all at once.
Normally, the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) would intervene with its dollar reserves to support the ruble, but Russia’s dollar reserves were frozen by U.S. and other nations’ financial sanctions and by a prohibition of CBR use of SWIFT for dollar transfers. An action to freeze the assets and transactions of a major central bank is unprecedented since the end of the Cold War, but that’s exactly what happened this week.
The CBR responded to the freeze with the next-best tactic, which was to impose capital controls and raise interest rates to 20% in an effort to stabilize the ruble. Those measures seem to be working in the short run. But the ruble collapse can presage major instability in the international monetary system.
Suddenly, dollar-denominated obligations of Russian entities that rely on ruble earnings may go into default because the ruble revenues are insufficient to pay the debts and because rubles can’t be converted to dollars due to exchange controls. Those losses will end up on the books of the lenders in Europe and the U.S., which may cause further financial distress.
The SWIFT prohibitions on Russian banks are also not a free lunch in terms of putting pressure on Russia. Every buyer has a seller, and every sender has a receiver. If Russian banks cannot transact on SWIFT, that means Western banks that are counterparties will take the hit. As Western banks scramble to cover their open positions, there will be dumping of collateral and other assets that may disrupt financial markets. Unlike a stock market crash, this kind of interbank distress does not happen all at once. It can take days or weeks to play out. Still, those ripple effects or spillovers are coming.
We’re probably in the opening stages of a major global liquidity crisis. What happens in Russia doesn’t stay in Russia. These types of markets are dangerous for investors who are unfamiliar or not paying attention. I encourage you not to be one of them. Below, my senior analyst, Dan Amoss, shows you the most potent weapon that the U.S. and Europe have against Russia. Read on."
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"The West’s Most Potent Weapon"
By Dan Amoss
"As more sanctions are put on Russia by NATO countries, we must look ahead to the economic consequences for the West when Putin responds. What will oil supplies along with severed supply chains look like for global economies when that happens? We will unpack these questions today… A wave of public support from around the world is encouraging Ukraine in its valiant resistance. Americans naturally sympathize with Ukrainians. When an army crosses a sovereign border, we support those defending their families and communities in an unnecessary war of aggression. Our prayers go out to all who are suffering.
With that said, you need to protect your portfolio, especially in times like these. Let’s consider a likely financial market scenario that is based on what’s happened in the past week and where things stand as of today.
Leaders of the EU, the U.S. and NATO have unleashed a barrage of economic and banking sanctions. But they’re being naïve if they think cutting off Russia economically won’t have grave economic consequences for the West. Leaders should be forthright with constituents about how much economic damage Putin can inflict when he hits back in the weeks ahead — primarily through weaponizing oil and gas supplies.
More oil and gas supply available at lower prices is the best way to gain negotiating leverage against Putin, a man who is willing to kill civilians as part of his “negotiating” process. This is not the time for the EU or U.S. to double down on a wind-and-solar agenda, because an overdose of wind and solar has decimated German industry in the past few months. An immediate and dramatic increase in oil and gas exploration would be the most potent weapon to fight back against Putin. Doing so would be far more effective and lasting than banking sanctions, which risk uncertain worldwide financial and economic blowback.
Efforts to crash Russia’s financial system ignore an obvious fact: Payments go one way, goods and services go the other. In the case of Russia, we’re mostly talking about energy and food. Jim Rickards has covered this topic in his Twitter feed, which you should follow for his thoughts. Early this week Jim tweeted: "Stocks to open down big. Who knows where they go from there? That’s not the threat. The danger is in the banking system, interbank loans, eurodollars, repos and other leverage based on Treasury bill collateral. It’s easy to smash Russia. It’s impossible to know what comes next."
[As an aside: I find Twitter to be an enormously valuable tool for researching investments, but discipline is a must. It’s easy to get distracted by noise and miss signals. So much noise is shouted by ignoramuses. With practice, one can do a decent job of filtering signals from noise. Stick to subject matter experts, and elders who have vastly more life experience, and you’ll be well served.]
Going back to the main theme: Encouraging more U.S. energy production is vital not because it’s a popular Republican talking point. It’s vital because the plain facts show insufficient capital spending to meet global oil demand at today’s price. This can extend to Europe too, which has neglected to invest in the oil and gas that’s still offshore in the North Sea. Norway has done a decent job investing, but the British and Dutch have gone “all in” on wind, leaving untapped oil and gas in their sectors of the North Sea.
Western oil companies have not invested enough in drilling projects to offset potential supply reductions from Russia. Banks, oil-trading firms and refineries are balking at importing Russian oil. That means prices could keep rising until demand is destroyed. For oil demand to fall enough to match the sharp drop in available supply, higher prices are required.
Jim and I have spent the past week reading and communicating about what’s unfolding in Ukraine, and its implications for financial markets. We are thinking about the implications for inflation if many links in the global supply chain for commodities get severed and rerouted. Creating new links would take time and will be costly.
For instance, Germany cannot snap its fingers and get the liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal that its political leaders now desire. Nor can the U.S. boost its LNG export capacity very quickly. Capacity is already very tight. Cost blowouts on LNG terminal construction projects drove engineering and construction companies into bankruptcies. Building more U.S. LNG export capacity would be very costly. It was barely feasible when steel prices were a fraction of today’s prices. Now? The fully loaded cost of gas liquefication would have to rise significantly to finance what would be much higher plant construction costs.
What about energy transportation? Oil tankers may have to steam for many more miles if refineries around the world can no longer accept Russian crude. Refineries may have to invest to handle a change in crude types. Pipelines networks would have to be reimagined. All this is just the beginning of what it would take to transition to a less efficient, more duplicative, more multipolar global commodities trading system.
What if Russia becomes a pariah state like Iran or Venezuela and must sell its commodities on the black market to autocrat-tolerant buyers like China? It’s an open secret that China imports lots of Iranian oil on the black market even though Iran is under harsh international sanctions.
My point is this: If delicate, densely interconnected trade and payment links around the globe get rearranged, it’s going to be very costly. There’s no sugarcoating it. Duplicating supply chains would take a decade or more, raise marginal production costs and lower standards of living (mostly through inflation). The good news is economies would be more resilient and less fragile after a long rebuilding and reshoring process. The bad news is that it’s going to take a long time and for many it will be a painful process.
Also, we need to be realistic about how much more economic activity may be directed by wasteful government budgets. “We need more subsidies! Price controls! Loan guarantees! And more!” say the control freaks who all too often rise to the top in politics. If only it were that easy. Unfortunately, it’s not."
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