Maineville, Ohio, USA. Thanks for stopping by!
So, we rise from the rubble...
Friday, July 8, 2022
"It Is Common To Assume..."
"It is common to assume that human progress affects everyone - that even the dullest man, in these bright days, knows more than any man of, say, the Eighteenth Century, and is far more civilized. This assumption is quite erroneous. The great masses of men, even in this inspired republic, are precisely where the mob was at the dawn of history. They are ignorant, they are dishonest, they are cowardly, they are ignoble. They know little if anything that is worth knowing, and there is not the slightest sign of a natural desire among them to increase their knowledge."
- H. L. Mencken, 1929
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"It is extraordinary how we go through life with eyes half shut,
with dull ears, with dormant thoughts. Perhaps it's just as well;
and it may be that it is this very dullness that makes
life to the incalculable majority so supportable and so welcome. "
-Joseph Conrad, "Lord Jim"
"U.S Faces Major Reckoning - More Banks Step Up Recession Warnings"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly 7/8/22:
"U.S Faces Major Reckoning -
More Banks Step Up Recession Warnings"
Comments here:
Bill Bonner, "Original Monetary Sin"
"Original Monetary Sin"
After 40 years of Bubble Finance...
the Day of Reckoning is finally coming due.
by Bill Bonner
"Eve: “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’”
Serpent: “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
~ Genesis 3:2-5
Bonner: Yeah, right.
"There are many different ways to understand what is going on. At the simplest level, there is a ‘correction’ in the stock market. At the next level down, there is a historic shift in the bond market. Both markets are now selling off from some of the highest levels ever recorded. But how did they get so high? That’s where we find another layer of meaning, understanding and confusion.
In an honest economy, wealth is created by providing real goods and services to others. The more real goods and services a society can produce, the richer it is. High prices are never a problem. They are just information – telling us where we need to invest more to get more output.
Stretchy and Sticky: But then, along comes a snake. He has an offer that is too good to refuse. In 1971, the US money system was changed. Milton Friedman led the way. He called it ‘monetarism,’ where the dollar would no longer be handcuffed to gold. Instead, the money supply would increase steadily and predictably (Friedman recommended 3% per year – roughly equal to GDP growth at the time.) It sounded like a good idea, especially since it meant the US could welsh on its obligation to redeem foreign-held dollars for gold.
But it wasn’t long before people realized that this new money was stretchy… and sticky. They could use it like duct tape, to cover cracks, holes, gaps – in place of real wealth. No need to match up income and outgo. No need to save.
Want to raise your stock price, for example? Just borrow some of this money and buy the shares. Thanks to the Fed’s super-low rates, you were often able to borrow below the rate of consumer price inflation… or below the rate of your own company earnings. Borrow at 3% for a stock that earns 4%... when inflation is running at 5%? A no brainer.
Or suppose you wanted a new house? No need to work and save so that you could afford it. Just borrow. And no need to ever pay off the loan. You could just refinance… over and over… and reduce your monthly payments each time.
Where the Money Was: Borrow… borrow… borrow – there was no apparent limit to how much ‘credit’ the new system offered. And the way to get ahead in this new ‘financialized’ world was to get into ‘finance,’ not into manufacturing. Gradually, the grand houses on Long Island and in Aspen came under new ownership. Gone were the families that made their fortunes by making mattresses and box cereal. In came the hedge fund managers, and private equity slicksters. Mothers, being no fools, told their babies not to bother going to Detroit to get a job with GM. Instead, they should go to Manhattan and get a job with Goldman Sachs; that’s where the money was.
But the money that was too-good-to-refuse was also too-good-to-be-true. Goods and services are hard to produce. Money is easy. Soon, there was a lot more money than there were goods and services. Yes, the system had a fatal flaw. The people running it weren’t gods after all. They were jackasses.
US GDP was just over $1.1 trillion in 1971. Now it is $24 trillion – a 21 times increase. But Federal Debt in 1971 was only $398 billion. Now, it’s over $30 trillion – an increase of 75 times. In other words, the supply of ‘money’ grew three times as fast as supplies of goods and services (GDP).
Tom Dyson, our investment chief, explained yesterday: "The system now requires a constant expansion of credit and debt to survive. The minute that debt stops expanding (or being refinanced at affordable rates) the system collapses in what economists call a “debt deflation.” Think of a hot air balloon that suddenly loses its hot air. It does not float gently to the ground. It plummets. It's as simple and unavoidable as that."
All In Due Course: Yes, the Fed has turned off the hot gas. It’s the end of “financialization.” The ‘inflate or die’ economy is dying. But why now? After 40 years of Bubble Finance, you’d think the Fed would have figured out the trick to it.
Alas, there’s more to the story. Another level to study. More money than stuff? Prices rise. And now, with inflation rates many times higher than the Fed’s key rate… the controllers have lost control. They are ‘behind the curve’ – out of step and out of time. And now they have no choice. They have to slow the economy down. The fake money must now return whence it came.
Money dies. Prices die. Businesses die. Debts die. Jobs die. And the whole money-mad economy begins to rot… from the extremities. Cryptos and NFTs fall off, like gangrenous toes. Then, the decay spreads… up the body to the interior organs. The big question for us is: how far will the putrefaction go… before the Fed panics and goes back into ‘inflate’ mode? That question will answer itself in due course."
Gregory Mannarino, "All The Data Are Fake And People Are Being Lied To On An Epic Scale"
Gregory Mannarino, AM 7/8/22:
"All The Data Are Fake And People Are
Being Lied To On An Epic Scale"
Comments here:
"Massive Power Outages Hit Stores In Cincinnati! Kroger Closed! This Is Not Good!"
Full screen recommended.
Adventures with Danno, 7/8/22:
"Massive Power Outages Hit Stores In Cincinnati!
Kroger Closed! This Is Not Good!"
"In today's Vlog we visit a few grocery stores to witness the aftermath of a massive power outage, leaving the stores with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of refrigerated items wasted."
Comments here:
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Related:
Jim Kunstler, "Ignition… Lift-off!"
"Ignition… Lift-off!"
by Jim Kunstler
"It looks like someone has called room service in a certain Swiss Fortress of Solitude and ordered der Schwabenklaus’s ass to be handed to him on a platter with a side of sauerkraut. The assisted suicide of Western Civ, Euro division, has been interrupted by peasant uprisings, first in the Netherlands, now spreading to Germany, Italy, and Poland. The farmers are on the march. They are coming for you, Klaus, and your World Economic Forum’s legion of implanted government goblins.
The governments of virtually all the nations of Western Civ have become enemies of their people. It’s been obvious in the USA for quite some time, but our preposterous attempt to turn Ukraine into a forward NATO missile base next door to Russia finally revealed the villainous rot in Euroland, too. Cut yourselves off, Germany, from Russian oil and natural gas? Whose bright idea was that? (Hint: Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who else? He supposedly runs that joint, doesn’t he?) Plan B, you Deutsches Volk now realize, is to burn your furniture to stay warm at Christmas.
America’s gambit to goad Russia into a Ukrainian quagmire turned into such a mighty fail that the US news media doesn’t even report on the doings there anymore. Which are: the Russians sent in their junior varsity and systematically wiped up the floor with Ukraine’s 250,000-man, NATO-trained (ha!) army of neo-Nazis. That is not an empty pejorative, by the way. They really are explicitly true believers in old Adolf’s mid-20th century program of exterminating the Russ people next door. Mr. Putin wasn’t kidding around when he highlighted that feature of his operation.
So, now the heart of Euroland looks forward to a new era without energy and without modern industry, meaning what? Well, without modern life (maybe without life, period). Der Schwabenklaus outlined that pretty clearly, too, with the by-now shopworn slogan that “You vill own nussing and you vill be heppy.” It was such an absurd maxim that many who pretend to think took it as a sort of joke. And, let’s face it, Klaus really does appear to be a comic figure — the weirdo tunic he sometimes wears, the Hollywood B-movie accent. But not so many are laughing now as the lights go out from Galway Bay to the Gulf of Riga.
If not the sinister Schwabenklaus, then, who or what entity is behind this world-ending mischief remains a matter of baffling consternation? Quite a few people, otherwise not insane, say we’re in thrall to some hovering alien presence not-of-this-Earth somehow directing our own destruction. Personally, I find that a bit silly. The most persuasive real-world clues point to China’s Communist Party (the CCP). Where did the “Wuhan Flu” (Sars C-19) emanate from? (Trick question.) At whose 2019 Wuhan World Military Games did the first outbreak occur? (Ditto.) Whose policy model was adopted in the US and Euroland for dealing with that punk-ass virus with lockdowns? Which current President of the USA has been on the payroll of the CCP for nearly a decade via shady business deals grifted up by his son? Hmmmm.
This latter saga of R. Hunter Biden is so well-publicized in its grotesque details - smoking crack and cavorting with Russian whores on-camera - that it seems like just another Netflix series. But guess what? It’s really real. And so are all the deal memoranda and emails on Hunter’s laptop, which has been in the passive possession of the FBI for three years. And you mean to tell me that no one has done anything about it? How is Director Chris Wray still walking around a free man?
Meanwhile, the very people who helped engineer the Wuhan Sars C-19 virus - and the mRNA “vaccines” now proving way deadlier than the virus - are still in the employ of our government: Anthony Fauci and former NIH Director Francis Collins (currently “Joe Biden’s” chief science advisor in the White House at $300+K-a-year). The effrontery! Notice, too, that, having winkled the Pentagon into “vaccinating” all our troops (including our military women-with-penises and men-with-vaginas), we now have an army programmed to drop dead on any battlefield they find themselves at without an enemy firing a shot. How do we even propose to defend North America if, say, China took a notion to seize our land by main force?
These quandaries and conundrums form a toxic cloud of cognitive dissonance blanketing America like a cosmic miasma of wickedness. We have got to turn the tables on these ghouls running things.
This week, a serious rebellion has sparked off in Europe. The Dutch government moved to seize the land belonging to about a third of its farmers, supposedly to cut nitrogen-oxide emissions so as to satisfy WEF-inspired EU 2030 climate goals. There is more horseshit in the government’s policy pretexts than there is on the farms of Holland, so the farmers have formed a tractor army of rebellion, blocked highways and border crossings, and mixed it up physically with the police. As I said at the beginning, the revolt against official climate change psychosis is spreading quickly to other European countries.
Perhaps the non-elites of Europe have realized that they were played for chumps. (They were.) They went along with the “vaccine” mandates only to learn now that their countrymen are dropping dead at suspiciously alarming rates, and maybe it has something to do with those shots they lined up for so obediently. And they can see the vast loss of jobs and income ahead as their industries have to shut down for lack of fuel. And they can see how their governments seek to starve them and force them to freeze to death a few months from now. So, it’s game on and governments are about to fall across Europe, and God knows what kind of strife will erupt out of that. BoJo is going in the UK… Holland’s PM Mark Rutte may be next… Olaf Scholz after him… and Mario Dragi in Italy. Look out below.
As of this writing Friday morning, we have no idea what the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe might signify - except, perhaps, the ominous beginning of a global trend."
Thursday, July 7, 2022
Canadian Prepper, "It's Over! Prep Like Your Life Depends On It! It Does!"
Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 7/7/22:
"It's Over! Prep Like Your Life Depends On It! It Does!"
Comments here:
"20 Stunning Pieces Of Evidence That Show The Middle Class In America Is Dying"
Full screen recommended.
"20 Stunning Pieces Of Evidence That Show
The Middle Class In America Is Dying"
by Epic Economist
"Once upon a time, middle-class households made up 65 percent of the U.S. population. Today, the middle-class is not only a minority but it also lost ground financially. This is just one of the cold, hard facts that you will learn in this video. At this point, we all know that the American middle class has been in a steady decline. Our incomes are shrinking, our net worth is going down, and yet the cost of living just keeps going higher and higher. Right now, millions of small business owners and enterpreneurs are being strangled out of existence by mountains of red tape and excessive taxation, while millions of middle class jobs have been shipped out of the country to other nations where it is legal to pay extremely low wages.
More than one-third, or 34%, of middle-class families can’t cover a $400 emergency expense, according to a new study from the Urban Institute. Their experience of financial insecurity underscores their financial fragility in a slowing economy, the researchers noted. “We were certainly surprised by the percentage of families, especially moderate-income families, that are struggling with financial insecurity," they wrote. "There are rising health care costs, housing costs -- all those things present challenges for families, even middle-income families.
As incomes have stagnated, the building blocks of a stable middle-class living have steadily become more expensive," they continued, adding that, "health care, child care, and education are a few of the fundamental but increasingly unaffordable pillars of the American dream." The average monthly expenses for American households are $5,111, according to the most recent Consumer Expenditure Survey from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 2019, the average monthly expenses were only $3,300. Housing is the largest average cost at roughly $1,784 per month, making up 35% of typical spending. Moreover, Americans spend $610 on food per month. Transportation costs more than many realize ($819 per month), largely due to rising fuel prices. And, as of March 2022, the average healthcare spending hit $431 per month.
Until we start doing things differently, we will continue to get the same results, and the middle class will just get increasingly smaller. Over the past decade, middle class households have officially became an economic minority in this country. How much worse do things have to get before we say enough is enough? Are we just going to stand on the sidelines and watch the middle class disappear entirely? We have to remember that this is our future. This is the future of our children and of our grandchildren. This is the future of our nation. And we have to stand up for ourselves because our standard of living is being destroyed, and we're doing nothing to prevent that from happening.
Unfortunately, “the American Dream” is now dying in plain sight, but most Americans don’t seem to care. What in the world is it going to take for people to finally wake up and start taking action? Maybe some of these numbers serve as a wake up-call."
Comments here:
Gerald Celente, "Zelensky Blinded By Trends Journal Cover"
Full screen recommended.
Strong language alert!
Gerald Celente, "Trends In The News"
“Zelensky Blinded By Trends Journal Cover”
Comments here:
“The Writing Is on the Wall”
“The Writing Is on the Wall”
by Brian Maher
“The writing is on the wall.” This is the studied conclusion of a certain Frank Giustra, co-chairman of the International Crisis Group. What writing - precisely - adorns the wall? The writing is on the wall that some form of change is imminent, and a global monetary system reset may already be underway… the U.S. dollar feels like a lame-duck currency. It still rules, but the world is clearly jockeying for what comes next… something will eventually replace the U.S. dollar as the sole dominant global reserve currency, perhaps sooner than anyone expects.
It distresses us to discover that we store our limited wealth in a “lame-duck” currency. A lame duck is eventually a dead duck - “perhaps sooner than anyone expects.” And a dead-duck currency is a bankrupt currency.
The anti-Russian sanctions merely intensified the hunt. And Russian kingpin Putin brought a shotgun to the recent huddling of the BRICS nations, loaded with buckshot. Giustra: Couple [monetary and fiscal irresponsibility among other factors] with the frequent weaponization of the U.S. dollar through sanctions and the SWIFT system and you can see why certain countries have been desperately looking for U.S. dollar alternatives… Russian President Vladimir Putin is advocating that BRICS economies look into creating an international reserve currency using the basket of their own currencies. Finally, he started making noises about creating a gold-backed ruble.
China too is hunting duck. It too is hot to shatter today’s “dollar hegemony.” Like Russia, it too has been hauling in fantastic quantities of gold in recent years. Could Russia and China lead the BRICS with a gold-backed currency? Jim Rickards has warned about it for years (more on which below).
But China has an extra load of ammunition in its case. Explains our colleague Chris Campbell: China is the second-largest user of oil on the planet, and it has, for the past few decades, been forced to buy oil using the United States dollar. It doesn’t want to use dollars to buy oil. Being forced to buy oil in dollars means giving power to your main rival. In March, news broke that the House of Saud was considering accepting the yuan for oil.
Recall, the dollar’s power comes from oil. China purchases a whopping 25% of Saudi Arabia’s oil exports. That would be like taking away 25% of the dollar’s power in one fell swoop. If this happens, it would devalue the U.S. dollar, diminishing its power on the world stage. Interestingly, the yuan jumped in value immediately after the news.
History reveals that oil-exporting nations follow in Saudi Arabia’s footsteps. This could start a domino effect. This is a major potential vector of attack for the U.S. dollar. One that you should be prepared for. “But it’s not the only danger,” Chris warns: "While some are worried about the fall of the dollar’s prominence on the world stage…Other experts are worried about what comes NEXT."
In other words… You shouldn’t worry about the dollar, they say. You should worry about what’s going to REPLACE it. And it’s probably worse than you think… How does a man go bankrupt?Slowly at first, said Hemingway - then all at once. That is how the dollar will likely lose its reserve status: Slowly at first… then all at once. Alas, the “slowly” phase appears over and “all at once” is in prospect. The writing is on the wall…
Below, Jim Rickards shows you why the dollar is actually a victim of its own success. What does Jim mean? Read on."
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"The Dollar Is a Victim of Its Own Success"
by Jim Rickards
"America’s most powerful weapon of war does not shoot, fly or explode. It’s not a submarine, plane, tank or laser. America’s most powerful strategic weapon today is the dollar. The U.S. uses the dollar strategically to reward friends and punish enemies. The use of the dollar as a weapon is not limited to trade wars and currency wars, although the dollar is used tactically in those disputes. The dollar is much more powerful than that. The dollar can be used for regime change by creating hyperinflation, bank runs and domestic dissent in countries targeted by the U.S. The U.S. can depose the governments of its adversaries, or at least blunt their policies, without firing a shot.
Consider the following. The dollar constitutes about 60% of global reserves, 80% of global payments and almost 100% of global oil transactions. European banks that make dollar-denominated loans to customers have to borrow dollars to fund those liabilities. Being based in Switzerland or Germany does not allow you to escape from the dollar’s dominance.
The U.S. not only controls the dollar itself. It controls the dollar payments system. This consists of the Treasury’s digital ledger of holders of U.S. debt, the Fedwire payments system among U.S. Fed member banks and the Clearing House Association (successor to the New York Clearing House and proprietor of CHIPS, the Clearing House Interbank Payments System) composed of the largest U.S. banks. A dollar payment going from a bank in Shanghai to another bank in Sydney runs through one of these U.S.-controlled payments systems. In short, the dollar is the oxygen supply for world commerce and the U.S. can cut off your oxygen whenever it wants.
The list of ways in which the dollar can be weaponized is extensive. The U.S. uses the dollar to force its enemies into fronts, crude barter or the black market if they want to do business. Examples of the U.S. employing these financial weapons are ubiquitous and long precede the draconian sanctions imposed on Russia in the wake of its recent invasion of Ukraine.
The U.S. slapped sanctions on Russia after the 2014 annexation of Crimea and invasion of eastern Ukraine. The U.S. waged a full-scale financial war with Iran from 2011–13 that resulted in bank runs, hyperinflation, local currency devaluation and social unrest. The U.S. slapped stiff penalties on China for theft of intellectual property. Other obvious victims of U.S. financial weapons are North Korea, Syria, Cuba and Venezuela.
The actions described above did not arise in the normal course of trade and finance. The Russian, Iranian and other sanctions noted are explicitly geopolitical, while the Chinese sanctions are geostrategic to the extent the U.S. and China are vying for technological supremacy in the 21st century.
None of these sanctions would be effective or even possible without the use of the dollar and the dollar payments system. Yet for every action there is a reaction. America’s adversaries realize how vulnerable they are to dollar-based sanctions. In the short run, they have to grin and bear it. But our adversaries and so-called allies are not standing still. They are already envisioning a world where the dollar is not the major reserve and trade currency. In the longer run, Russia, China, Iran and others are working flat-out to invent and implement non-dollar transactional currencies and independent payments systems. Vladimir Putin proposed a new reserve currency at the recent BRICS meeting.
I’ve been warning for years about efforts of nations like Russia and China to escape what they call “dollar hegemony” and create a new financial system that does not depend on the dollar and helps them get out from under dollar-based economic sanctions. These efforts are only increasing, especially after the Russian sanctions. No one wants to be next.
You can be confident that gold would play a role in a new monetary order. The use of gold is the ideal way to avoid U.S. financial warfare. Gold is physical so it cannot be hacked. It is completely fungible (an element, atomic number 79) so it cannot be traced. Gold can be transported in sealed containers on airplanes so movements cannot be identified through wire transfer message traffic or satellite surveillance.
Russia, for example, can settle its balance of payments obligations with gold shipments or gold sales and avoid U.S. asset freezes. Russia is providing other nations a model to achieve similar distance from U.S. efforts to use the dollar to enforce its foreign policy priorities.
Even Europe is showing signs it wants to escape dollar hegemony. The German foreign minister has called for a new EU-based payments system independent of the U.S. and SWIFT that would not involve dollar payments. SWIFT is the nerve center of the global financial network. All major banks transfer all major currencies using the SWIFT message system. Cutting a nation off from SWIFT is like taking away its oxygen. The U.S. had previously banned Iran from the dollar payments system (Fedwire), which it controls, but Iran turned to SWIFT to transfer euros and yen in order to maintain its receipt of hard currency for oil exports.
In 2012, the U.S. successfully kicked Iran out of SWIFT. This was a crushing blow to Iran because it could not receive payment in hard currencies for its oil. This pushed Iran to the bargaining table, which resulted in a nuclear deal with the U.S. in 2015. And of course, the U.S. banned Russia from SWIFT after its February invasion of Ukraine. But in the longer run, this is just one more development pushing the world at large away from dollars and toward alternatives of all kinds, including new payment systems and cryptocurrencies, possibly backed by gold.
Imagine a three-way trade in which North Korea sells weapons to Iran, Iran sells oil to China and China sells food to North Korea. All of these transactions can be recorded on a blockchain and netted out on a quarterly basis with the net settlement payment made in gold shipped to the party with the net balance due. That’s a glimpse of what a future non-dollar payments system looks like.
The bottom line is the world is looking to turn away from dollar dominance in global finance. Given the severe sanctions regime against Russia, it may end sooner than most expect. We are getting dangerously close to that point right now."
Gregory Mannarino, "Epic! Another Miracle On Wall St.! Goldman Sachs Warns Of "Severe Recession"
Gregory Mannarino, PM 7/7/22:
"Epic! Another Miracle On Wall St.!
Goldman Sachs Warns Of "Severe Recession"
Comments here:
Musical Interlude: 2002, “Children in Time”
Full screen recommended.
2002, “Children in Time”
"This song is from 2002's album 'This Moment Now.' Twenty years ago, Pamela and Randy lived for awhile in different parts of the country, and part of their staying in touch was a steady stream of hand-written love letters to each other. The music on this album reflects a love that transcends distance and time."
"A Look to the Heavens"
“Namibia has some of the darkest nights visible from any continent. It is therefore home to some of the more spectacular skyscapes, a few of which have been captured in the below time-lapse video. We recommend watching this video at FULL SCREEN (1080p), with audio on. The night sky of Namibia is one of the best in the world, about the same quality of the deserts of Chile and Australia.
Full screen recommended.
Visible at the movie start are unusual quiver trees perched before a deep starfield highlighted by the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy. This bright band of stars and gas appears to pivot around the celestial south pole as our Earth rotates. The remains of camel thorn trees are then seen against a sky that includes a fuzzy patch on the far right that is the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small satellite galaxy to the Milky Way. A bright sunlight-reflecting satellite passes quickly overhead. Quiver trees appear again, now showing their unusual trunks, while the Small Magellanic Cloud becomes clearly visible in the background. Artificial lights illuminate a mist that surround camel thorn trees in Deadvlei. In the final sequence, natural Namibian stone arches are captured against the advancing shadows of the setting moon. This video incorporates over 16,000 images shot over two years, and won top honors among the 2012 Travel Photographer of the Year awards.”
Chet Raymo, “Universal Constants, Universal Consensus”
“Universal Constants, Universal Consensus”
by Chet Raymo
“I once received a book in the mail, as I sometimes do, for potential review on this blog, James Stein's “Cosmic Numbers: The Numbers That Define Our Universe”. I often write here about books I read, but I don't review. I did glance at Stein's book, however. It has an audience, but it's not for me; been there, done that. The subtitle is provocative, however. The idea that a dozen or so numbers "define the universe." That's a mind-blowing concept.
The gravitational constant. The speed of light. Absolute zero. Planck's constant. The Hubble constant. And so on. Familiar to every introductory physics student. Built into the very structure of the Earth. And every other earth in the universe.
The gravitational constant. The speed of light. Absolute zero. Planck's constant. The Hubble constant. And so on. Familiar to every introductory physics student. Built into the very structure of the Earth. And every other earth in the universe.
The human mind has thrown a net across the cosmos. And as we have brought the galaxies into our ken, so have we come to realize that we too are part and parcel of the fabric of cosmic space and time. Exceptional clarity. Impenetrable mystery.
So what do we make of the news so breathlessly reported in the media of neutrinos moving faster than the speed of light? This is surely a bit of heroic physics, pitting what we believe to be true against the refining fire of experience, but I wouldn't make too much of it yet. Tom suggested that perhaps the researchers unwittingly measured the distance from CERN in Switzerland to Gran Sasso in Italy with greater accuracy. That's the kind of whimsy the result calls for now. The real story - for the time being - is as an illustration of the way the engine of scientific knowing grinds inexorably toward consensus.”
The Poet: Mark Strand, "Dreams"
"Dreams"
"Trying to recall the plot
And characters we dreamed,
What life was like
Before the morning came,
We are seldom satisfied,
And even then
There is no way of knowing
If what we know is true.
Something nameless
Hums us into sleep,
Withdraws, and leaves us in
A place that seems
Always vaguely familiar.
Perhaps it is because
We take the props
And fixtures of our days
With us into the dark,
Assuring ourselves
We are still alive. And yet
Nothing here is certain;
Landscapes merge
With one another, houses
Are never where they should be,
Doors and windows
Sometimes open out
To other doors and windows,
Even the person
Who seems most like ourselves
Cannot be counted on,
For there have been
Too many times when he,
Like everything else, has done
The unexpected.
And as the night wears on,
The dim allegory of ourselves
Unfolds, and we
Feel dreamed by someone else,
A sleeping counterpart,
Who gathers in
The darkness of his person
Shades of the real world.
Nothing is clear;
We are not ever sure
If the life we live there
Belongs to us.
Each night it is the same;
Just when we’re on the verge
Of catching on,
A sense of our remoteness
Closes in, and the world
So lately seen
Gradually fades from sight.
We wake to find the sleeper
Is ourselves
And the dreamt-of is someone who did
Something we can’t quite put
Our finger on,
But which involved a life
We are always, we feel,
About to discover."
- Mark Strand
"You Must Not Be Frightened..."
"How should we be able to forget those ancient myths that are at the beginning of all peoples, the myths about dragons that at the last moment turn into princesses; perhaps all the dragons of our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything terrible is in its deepest being something helpless that needs our help. So you must not be frightened if a sadness rises up before you larger than any you have ever seen; if a restiveness, like light and cloud shadows, passes over your hands and over all you do. You must think that something is happening with you, that life has not forgotten you, that it holds you in its hand; it will not let you fall."
- Rainer Maria Rilke
Free Download: Jiddu Krishnamurti, “The Book of Life”
"You must understand the whole of life, not just one little part of it.
That is why you must read, that is why you must look at the skies,
that is why you must sing and dance,
and write poems and suffer and understand, for all that is life."
- Jiddu Krishnamurti
Freely download “The Book of Life”, by Jiddu Krishnamurti:
“95 Questions to Help You Find Meaning and Happiness”
“95 Questions to Help You Find Meaning and Happiness”
by Marc
“At the cusp of a new day, week, month or year, most of us take a little time to reflect on our lives by looking back over the past and ahead into the future. We ponder the successes, failures and standout events that are slowly scripting our life’s story. This process of self-reflection helps us maintain a conscious awareness of where we’ve been and where we intend to go. It is pertinent to the organization and preservation of our long-term goals and happiness. The questions below will help you with this process, because when it comes to finding meaning in life, asking the right questions is the answer.
1. In one sentence, who are you?
2. Why do you matter?
3. What is your life motto?
4. What’s something you have that everyone wants?
5. What is missing in your life?
6. What’s been on your mind most lately?
7. Happiness is a ________?
8. What stands between you and happiness?
9. What do you need most right now?
10. What does the child inside you long for?
11. What is one thing right now that you are totally sure of?
12. What’s been bothering you lately?
13. What are you scared of?
14. What has fear of failure stopped you from doing?
15. What will you never give up on?
16. What do you want to remember forever?
17. What makes you feel secure?
18. Which activities make you lose track of time?
19. What’s the most difficult decision you’ve ever made?
20. What’s the best decision you’ve ever made?
21. What are you most grateful for?
22. What is worth the pain?
23. In order of importance, how would you rank: happiness, money, love, health, fame?
24. What is something you’ve always wanted, but don’t yet have?
25. What was the most defining moment in your life during this past year?
26. What’s the number one change you need to make in your life in the next twelve months?
27. What’s the number one thing you want to achieve in the next five years?
28. What is the biggest motivator in your life right now?
29. What will you never do?
30. What’s something you said you’d never do, but have since done?
31. What’s something new you recently learned about yourself?
32. What do you sometimes pretend to understand that you really do not?
33. In one sentence, what do you wish for your future self?
34. What worries you most about the future?
35. When you look into the past, what do you miss most?
36. What’s something from the past that you don’t miss at all?
37. What recently reminded you of how fast time flies?
38. What is the biggest challenge you face right now?
39. In one word, how would you describe your personality?
40. What never fails to frustrate you?
41. What are you known for by your friends and family?
42. What’s something most people don’t know about you?
43. What’s a common misconception people have about you?
44. What’s something a lot of people do that you disagree with?
45. What’s a belief you hold with which many people disagree?
46. What’s something that’s harder for you than it is for most people?
47. What are the top three qualities you look for in a friend?
48. If you had a friend who spoke to you in the same way that you sometimes speak to yourself, how long would you allow that person to be your friend?
49. When you think of ‘home,’ what, specifically, do you think of?
50. What’s the most valuable thing you own?
51. If you had to move 3000 miles away, what would you miss most?
52. What would make you smile right now?
53. What do you do when nothing else seems to make you happy?
54. What do you wish did not exist in your life?
55. What should you avoid to improve your life?
56. What is something you would hate to go without for a day?
57. What’s the biggest lie you once believed was true?
58. What’s something bad that happened to you that made you stronger?
59. What’s something nobody could ever steal from you?
60. What’s something you disliked when you were younger that you truly enjoy today?
61. What are you glad you quit?
62. What do you need to spend more time doing?
63. What are you naturally good at?
64. What have you been counting or keeping track of recently?
65. What has the little voice inside your head been saying lately?
66. What’s something you should always be careful with?
67. What should always be taken seriously?
68. What should never be taken seriously?
69. What are three things you can’t get enough of?
70. What would you do differently if you knew nobody would judge you?
71. What fascinates you?
72. What’s the difference between being alive and truly living?
73. What’s something you would do every day if you could?
74. At what time in your recent past have you felt most passionate and alive?
75. Which is worse, failing or never trying?
76. What makes you feel incomplete?
77. When did you experience a major turning point in your life?
78. What or who do you wish you lived closer to?
79. If you had the opportunity to get a message across to a large group of people, what would your message be?
80. What’s something you know you can count on?
81. What makes you feel comfortable?
82. What’s something about you that has never changed?
83. What will be different about your life in exactly one year?
84. What mistakes do you make over and over again?
85. What do you have a hard time saying “no” to?
86. Are you doing what you believe in, or are you settling for what you are doing?
87. What’s something that used to scare you, but no longer does?
88. What promise to yourself do you still need to fulfill?
89. What do you appreciate most about your current situation?
90. What’s something simple that makes you smile?
91. So far, what has been the primary focus of your life?
92. How do you know when it’s time to move on?
93. What’s something you wish you could do one more time?
94. When you’re 90-years-old, what will matter to you the most?
95. What would you regret not fully doing, being, or having in your life?”
From the wonderful "Marc and Angel Hack Life" blog:
"Walking By Abandoned Stores Today, Proof Recession Has Begun; People Look Scared; Prepare Now"
Full screen recommended.
Jeremiah Babe 7/7/22:
"Walking By Abandoned Stores Today, Proof
Recession Has Begun; People Look Scared; Prepare Now"
Comments here:
"Retail Is Dead in 2022 - No More Merchandise Returns"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly 7/7/22:
"Retail Is Dead in 2022 -
No More Merchandise Returns"
"Retail sales are absolutely destroyed right now. Inflation has destroyed so many stores. Now we’re hearing from large retailers that they don’t want merchandise returned to the stores. When will the insanity end?"
Comments here:
"The Monstrous Thing..."
"The monstrous thing is not that men have created roses out of this dung heap, but that, for some reason or other, they should want roses. For some reason or other man looks for the miracle, and to accomplish it he will wade through blood. He will debauch himself with ideas, he will reduce himself to a shadow if for only one second of his life he can close his eyes to the hideousness of reality. Everything is endured - disgrace, humiliation, poverty, war, crime, ennui - in the belief that overnight something will occur, a miracle, which will render life tolerable. And all the while a meter is running inside and there is no hand that can reach in there and shut it off."
- Henry Miller, “Tropic of Cancer”
Bill Bonner, "Forbidden Fruit and a Pension Problem"
"Forbidden Fruit and a Pension Problem"
A look at the 'original sin' behind today's stock prices,
and where we're headed next.
by Bill Bonner
Baltimore, Maryland - "Our hoary president was in the news yesterday. CBSNews: "Biden promotes plan to protect millions of workers' pensions."
"WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Wednesday traveled to Ohio to highlight his administration’s work to prevent cuts to millions of workers’ pensions as his approval rating continues to sag ahead of the midterm elections. Biden’s visit was tied to the launch of a program launch of a program created under the American Rescue Plan that provides assistance to struggling multi-company pension plans, ensuring that as many as 3 million workers and retirees will receive their full benefits."
This morning, the Wall Street Journal adds that pension funds will be able to use up to a third of the $90 billion in free money to gamble in the stock market. Republicans allegedly maligned these pension bailouts as ‘rat holes.’ Of course, they were right. But the rats vote, and Joe will take votes from wherever he can get them.
And here’s an earlier WSJ note showing us what a big hole the rats dug for themselves. In Pasadena, California…"The local police and fire pension plan has been closed for nearly 50 years. Pension recipients have dwindled to fewer than 180. But the city still owes about $135 million in bond debt on the plan. Payments on it are expected to be about $6 million in 2022. Local governments made pension commitments that they couldn’t afford. Employees must have known it. So did fund managers. But such was the connivance between them that neither wanted to ask questions. They hoped for the best… and waited for the bailout."
Our pen pal, MN Gordon, adds this: "According to a Municipal Market Analytics analysis of Bloomberg data, more than 100 city, county, state, and other governments borrowed for their pension funds last year. This is twice the highest number that did so in any prior year."
Standing behind these pension funds are state and local taxpayers – that’s you, acting as the ATM. Moreover, when the investment returns of public pension funds fall short, governments are primarily responsible for filling the void. This means cutting other spending and services or increasing taxes. Behind the local pensions stand the local governments. And behind the local governments stand the state governments. And behind them all stands the US federal government. And the US government is us.
So, where do the citizens of Dubuque get the money to pay the pensions of garbage collectors in Baton Rouge? The question is rarely asked, because the money was… until recently… almost free and unlimited. Governments could borrow… and then rollover their debt at an even lower rate.
But now, bonds are falling, consumer prices are rising, and the question marks are coming out. And we have an answer that will delight the wokesters. They won’t have to worry about defunding the police… or the trash collectors. All current services will be defunded in order to fund past ones. And by the way, that is the way of all debt. The money must be taken from the future to make good on yesterday’s promises. Or, the promises must be broken.
We will not dwell on the coming disaster in the pension world. It is the debt disaster in the larger world that interests us. So far…
We have the worst inflation in 41 years.
The worst stock market in 52 years.
The worst bond market in 224 years.
The worst consumer sentiment… and the worst performance for a balanced 60-40 portfolio… since record keeping began.
So what gives? We’re glad you asked. And hope you don’t expect a short answer. A full accounting of ‘what is going on’ would take more time and space than we have available. You can go as deep as you care to – all the way to the Big Bang, if you want. After all, had not Adam gotten together with Eve, there would be no Jerome Powell today. And had not the naked lady eaten the forbidden fruit – thus bringing evil into the world – there would be no US Federal Reserve.
But we will spare you the Original Sin interpretation and just give you the Dummies Guide version. And in the spirit of ‘diversity, access and inclusion,’ we will begin at the ‘functioning moron’ level and head down on the freight elevator from there. Here at Bonner Private Research, we usually stop at the ‘smoked-too-much-weed-in-college’ explanation; it’s about all we can handle. Exceptionally, we will keep going down… examining the sedimentary layers as we go… and let you decide where to get off.
What’s going on? The simplest answer is: it’s a stock market selloff. Stocks go up. Then they go down. They went up, with brief interruptions, for 39 years… from August 1982 to November 2021. Since then, the Dow has lost about 5,000 points. If recent history is anything to go on, it will lose another 7,000 points before it hits bottom.
We doubt that recent history will do us much good, however. Something very important has changed. Inflation; we haven’t seen so much of it since Rod Stewart was singing, “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy.” So, we will go down another level and take a look. Bonds go up and down too – typically in very long cycles. The 10-year T-bond yield, the basic brick of the entire capital structure, hit a low in August 2020. Before that, the previous low came around the time we were born – in the late 1940s. Bottom to bottom took more than seven decades.
So, it’s a big deal when these things turn around. And that’s what appears to be happening now. After 42 years of rising prices, bonds just suffered their worst loss since George Washington was President. But what does that mean? Why is it so important? Tomorrow, we head down further…closer to bedrock…to see if we can figure it out."
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