2002, "The End Is a Beginning"
Full screen mode highly recommended.
So, we rise from the rubble...
Wednesday, October 28, 2020
"A Look to the Heavens"
"No, hamburgers are not this big. What is pictured is a sharp telescopic view of a magnificent edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 3628, a puffy galactic disk divided by dark dust lanes. Of course, this deep galactic portrait puts some astronomers in mind of its popular moniker, The Hamburger Galaxy.
The tantalizing island universe is about 100,000 light-years across and 35 million light-years away in the northern springtime constellation Leo. NGC 3628 shares its neighborhood in the local Universe with two other large spirals M65 and M66 in a grouping otherwise known as the Leo Triplet. Gravitational interactions with its cosmic neighbors are likely responsible for the extended flare and warp of this spiral's disk.”
“Taking A Break From What You Are Doing”
“Taking A Break From What You Are Doing”
by Madisyn Taylor, The DailyOM
by Madisyn Taylor, The DailyOM
“Sometimes finding the answer is as easy as taking a break and stepping back from the situation. Sometimes we can get so wrapped up in our thoughts that we wind up going round in round in circles, finding it difficult to concentrate on things and, because we are so distracted, not really accomplishing much. There may be signals - mental, emotional, and physical - that tell us we need to slow down and relax. Since we are so involved in things that are external to us, however, we may easily overlook what is really going on inside of us. It is during these times that we need to step back from the things that occupy our minds and take time out to connect with our inner self, giving our minds, bodies, and spirits the time they need to reenergize and heal.
At first it may seem that by taking a break we may not be as productive as we would initially like. In reality, a healthy period of rest is something that gives us a real sense of the unlimited nature of our true potential. Spending a couple of minutes walking outside, doing a few yoga poses, meditating, or simply becoming attuned to the rising and falling of our breath enables us to let go of our worries. This act brings our focus back to the things that are truly essential for us, such as our sense of oneness with the universe and our inner peace and well-being. As we begin to get in touch with this part of ourselves, we will find that our usual everyday troubles and worries become less critical and that we not only have much more room in our lives to really reflect on the issues that mean the most to us, but we are also able bring to all the situations we encounter a much more positive and healthy outlook.
Giving ourselves respite from our daily concerns is like giving a gift to ourselves. By stepping away from the problems that seem to saturate our thoughts, we lessen the weight of our troubles and instead become more receptive to the wisdom and answers the universe has to offer us.”
- http://www.dailyom.com/
○"Sometimes, in a summer morning, having taken my accustomed bath, I sat in my sunny doorway from sunrise till noon, rapt in a revery, amidst the pines and hickories and sumachs, in undisturbed solitude and stillness, while the birds sing around or flitted noiseless through the house, until by the sun falling in at my west window, or the noise of some traveller's wagon on the distant highway, I was reminded of the lapse of time. I grew in those seasons like corn in the night, and they were far better than any work of the hands would have been. They were not time subtracted from my life, but so much over and above my usual allowance. I realized what the Orientals mean by contemplation and the forsaking of works. For the most part, I minded not how the hours went. The day advanced as if to light some work of mine; it was morning, and lo, now it is evening, and nothing memorable is accomplished."
- Henry David Thoreau
The Poet: Derek Mahon, "Everything Is Going to Be All Right"
"Everything Is Going to Be All Right"
"How should I not be glad to contemplate
the clouds clearing beyond the dormer window
and a high tide reflected on the ceiling?
There will be dying, there will be dying,
but there is no need to go into that.
The poems flow from the hand unbidden
and the hidden source is the watchful heart.
The sun rises in spite of everything
and the far cities are beautiful and bright.
I lie here in a riot of sunlight
watching the day break and the clouds flying.
Everything is going to be all right."
~ Derek Mahon,
"Collected Poems"
"So We All Ran Around..."
“So we all ran around in mad, mindless, meaningless circles, as if we were in a cotton-candy eating contest where the grand prize was getting kicked in the face. We were oblivious to everything around us that no truly sane person would ever tolerate. And we needed someone else to tell us to stop it.”
- Edward M. Wolfe
“Before the Leaves Fall From the Trees”
“Before the Leaves Fall From the Trees”
by Simon Black
"The morning of June 28, 1914 began like any other normal day. It was a Sunday, so a lot of people went to church. Others prepared large meals for family gatherings, played with their children, or thumbed through the Sunday papers.
At that point, tensions had been high in Europe for several years; the continent was bitterly divided by a series of complex diplomatic and military alliances, and small wars had recently broken out. Italy and the Ottoman Empire went to war in 1912 in a limited, 13-month conflict. And the First Balkan War was waged in early 1913. Overall, though, the continent clung to a delicate peace. And hardly anyone expected that most of the next THREE DECADES would be filled with chaos, poverty, and destruction. And then it happened.
That Sunday afternoon, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire was assassinated during an official visit to Sarajevo. And the world changed forever. Five weeks later the entire continent was at war with itself. But even still, most of the ‘experts’ thought it would be a simple, speedy conflict. Germany’s emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm II, famously told his troops who were being shipped off to the front line in August 1914, “You will be home before the leaves fall from the trees...” It took four years and an estimated 68 million casualties to bring the war to a close. But that was only the prelude.
Following (and even during) World War I, a series of bloody revolutionary movements took hold in Europe, including in Russia, Greece, Spain, Turkey, and Ireland. Then came the Spanish flu, which claimed the lives of tens of millions of people. Later, Germany sunk into one of the worst episodes of hyperinflation in human history.
Communism began rapidly spreading across the world almost as quickly as the Spanish flu, often through violent fanatics who engaged in murder and arson in order to intimidate their opponents; this became known as the ‘Red Scare’ in the United States.
Of course there were some good years during the 1920s when people generally felt prosperous and happy; but it all came crashing down at the end of the decade when a severe economic depression strangled the entire world. It lasted for more than ten years, during which time the world was once again brought to an even more destructive war that didn’t end until atomic weapons obliterated the civilian populations of two Japanese cities.
Again – go back to June 1914. Who would have thought that the next 30+ years would play out so destructively? Even for the people who did predict that Europe would go to war in 1914, most leaders thought it would be over quickly. And almost no one expected it would spawn decades of chaos.
Today we’re obviously living in different times and under different circumstances. But we may be standing at a similar precipice as in 1914, staring at enormous trends that could shape our lives for years to come. Covid only scratches the surface.
We now know without a doubt, for example, how governments will respond the next time they feel there’s a threat to public health. They’ll say, “We’re listening to the scientists.” Really? The same scientists who tell people they can’t go to work, school, or church, but it’s perfectly fine for peaceful protesters to pack together like sardines without wearing masks because they’re apparently protected from the virus by their own righteousness? The same scientists who want to lock everyone down to prevent Covid, but are happy to accept skyrocketing rates of cancer, depression, suicide, heart disease, and domestic abuse as a result of those very lockdowns…?
The public health consequences from this pandemic will reverberate for years to come. And that doesn’t even begin to take the economic consequences into consideration. Western governments have taken on trillions of dollars in new debt this year as a result of the pandemic; and central banks have printed trillions more. Even with all that stimulus, however, there are still hundreds of millions of people worldwide who lost their jobs, and countless businesses that have closed.
Future generations who haven’t even been born yet will spend their entire working lives paying interest on the debts that are being accumulated today. The long-term consequences of all this are incalculable.
And then there are the social trends – the rise of neo-Marxism that’s sweeping the world faster than Covid-19. It’s the Red Scare of the 21st century. They despise talented, successful people. They believe it’s greedy for you to keep a healthy portion of what you earn… but it’s not greedy for them to take it from you and spend it on themselves.
Many of the people in this movement, of course, are violent fanatics who routinely engage in arson, assault, and vandalism. Same for the social justice warriors who are just as quick to violence and intimidation; plus they’ve already commandeered the decision-making of some of the largest, most powerful companies in the world. You can’t even watch a football game or a TV commercial anymore without some commentary on oppression and victimization. And any intellectual dissent is met with intimidation… or censorship.
In fact the largest consumer technology companies in the world have become our censors. We’re not allowed to share scientific information that doesn’t conform to the Chinese-controlled World Health Organization’s guidance. And news articles that don’t match their ideology are blocked.
Let’s not kid ourselves – these trends are not going away any time soon. It’s great to be optimistic, hope for the best, and enjoy the good years as they come. But it makes sense to at least be prepared for the possibility that we could be at the very beginning of a period of instability that may last a very long time."
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"The Guns of August"
"In this landmark, Pulitzer Prize–winning account, renowned historian Barbara W. Tuchman re-creates the first month of World War I: thirty days in the summer of 1914 that determined the course of the conflict, the century, and ultimately our present world. Beginning with the funeral of Edward VII, Tuchman traces each step that led to the inevitable clash. And inevitable it was, with all sides plotting their war for a generation. Dizzyingly comprehensive and spectacularly portrayed with her famous talent for evoking the characters of the war’s key players."
Freely download here:
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"It's What You Know For Sure..."
“Consider a turkey that is fed every day. Every single feeding will firm up the bird’s belief that it is the general rule of life to be fed every day by friendly members of the human race ‘looking out for its best interests,’ as a politician would say. On the afternoon of the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, something unexpected will happen to the turkey. It will incur a revision of belief.“
- Nouriel Roubini
“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble.
It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”
- Mark Twain
"The Corruptocracy"
"The Corruptocracy"
by Robert Gore
"What’s called the silent majority is really the ignored majority, who for the most part are happy being ignored. Their lives revolve their families, jobs, friends, and community, not the media, publicity, polls, or politics. They’re sick of elections well before they’ve seen their hundredth campaign ad, received their hundredth mailer, or ignored their hundredth telephone call. They know that politicians are phony and corrupt and make jokes about them, but hope that their rulers don’t screw things up too badly, cross their fingers, and vote for the perceived lesser of two evils.
There’s a shortage of blue-ribbon pedigrees, Ivy League degrees, and gold-plated resumés among the ignored majority, but a surfeit of hard-knocks wisdom and common sense. Benjamin Franklin said, “Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other.” Everybody does foolish things, but by and large, the ignored majority learns from the dear school and puts its lessons to good use.
The gilded class denigrates those outside it: Hillary Clinton deploring the “deplorables,” Barack Obama saying working-class voters, “cling to guns or religion,” and Obama telling entrepreneurs, “you didn’t build that.” Yet, it consistently, almost invariably, demonstrates a complete lack of the common-sense street smarts found in abundance among those it disparages.
The quotes’ condescending arrogance rankles, but at a deeper level illustrate the real division in American politics—between the productive class and those it supports. At the intellectual level it’s the irreconcilable difference between those who believe that value can and should be conferred by the government, and those who know it must be created and produced. It’s believing or not believing that something can be had for nothing.
Freeloaders’ delusion stems from psychology, not ignorance. Every human faces a choice. They can produce value or they can beg, borrow, defraud, or steal it from someone else. For every advance humanity has made, there’s always been someone claiming their unfair share. Most of what we call history is merely an account of who’s stealing or defrauding from whom.
Because production is necessary for human survival, not producing anything of value creates a gaping psychological fissure, one not generally recognized or acknowledged. What’s generally accepted is that humans grasp at rationales and justifications for their actions, not just for the audience to which they’re playing, but for themselves. Most political philosophy is just an elaborate justification for theft and fraud. Political systems don’t spring from philosophies, the philosophies spring from the systems’ actual or potential beneficiaries.
Governments can take every scrap of what is produced. They can pledge every scrap of future production as repayment for their debts. The legitimization of unlimited current and future plunder leads to ever-increasing plunder and debt - and ever-diminishing production. Present governments are merely repeating a cycle that’s played out countless times throughout history.
You would think that government rapacity would be curbed when taxes, regulatory extortion, and debt disincentivize and begin reducing legitimate production. Unfortunately, that assumption flies in the face of historical fact; countless regimes have killed their golden geese. The only regimes that haven’t are those that are currently in the process of doing so.
One among many of rulers’ delusions is that the ruled are buying their lies.
Over time the victims see through the propaganda and narrative management. The lies fool the rulers more than the ruled and are essential psychological support for this predatory and parasitic class.
Commentators from the alternative media bemoan the lack of intelligence and awareness of the American people, and the supposed dominance of the mainstream media narrative. Yet, any number of alternative media commentators, YouTubers, and sites routinely receive more readers or viewers than touted mouthpiece media “powerhouses.” More people watch dissident Paul Joseph Watson’s videos than Rachel Maddow’s nightly screeds, but Maddow receives an inordinate amount of attention from the alternative and mainstream alike and Watson virtually none.
The alternative media’s thousands of sites have eclipsed the mouthpiece media, which exists in a bubble of its own creation. It’s a hugely underreported trend - without fanfare millions of people rejecting the mainstream, reading, researching, and coming to their own conclusions. There’s 330 million Americans and many of them are neither stupid nor duped. It’s just that nobody pays attention to them.
The media bubble envelopes the government-centered corruptocracy and allows those within to preserve the self-deception of personal worth. Someone who lives off the corporate-lobbyist-political food chain, shuffles paper in a government bureaucracy, enforces tax or regulatory extortion, or is otherwise supported in a something-for-nothing scheme cannot have the self-respect that comes from producing value. Instead, the predatory and parasitic classes cling to psychological crutches: conceit, arrogance, condescension, delusion, and willful ignorance.
The most intense predator and parasite condescension is directed at the producers who provide their sustenance. This may seem paradoxical but it’s not. Honest production is an obvious moral rebuke to those who live by theft and fraud. Acknowledging either the value of producers or their own dependence on them would undermine the fragile edifice of their rickety substitutes for self-worth.
Disaffected veterans were the core of a group that would grow to millions, their “faith” in government and the people who ran it obliterated by its repeated failures and lies. Revolutions dawn when an appreciable number of the ruled realize their rulers are intellectual and moral inferiors. The mainstream media is filled with vituperative, patronizing, and insulting explanations of what’s “behind” the Trump phenomenon. It all boils down to revulsion with the self-anointed, incompetent, pretentious, hypocritical, corrupt, prevaricating elite that presumes to rule this country. It is, in a word, inferior to the populace on the other side of the yawning chasm, the ones they have patronized and insulted for decades, and the other side knows it.
- “Much More Than Trump,” Robert Gore, SLL, March 3, 2016, reposted November 6, 2016
Nothing has changed over the last four years, except that the ranks of disaffected have swollen. Trump gave voice to them in 2016 and he’ll do it again in 2020. Once more it’s the productive businessman outsider against a government hack insider. After Russiagate, the impeachment, the coronavirus power-grab, leftist and Marxists riots, and endless media-driven tempests in teapots, the somethings in this country are far more contemptuous of the nothings who presume to rule them - and farcically, have designs on the whole world—than they were four years ago. The ultimate farce is the Harris/Biden ticket: a corrupt, doddering, old fool and a nakedly ambitious shrew who even Democrats don’t like, neither with a scintilla of detectable principle, waging the most inept campaign ever in front of face-masked, socially distanced audiences that number in the tens.
If he gets anything approaching an honest vote count Trump will win in a landslide. The “reputable” pollsters have become another arm of the entrenched powers’ narrative management. Like everything else the corruptocrats have tried, this effort will prove inept. The purported double-digit Biden leads will motivate, not discourage, Trump’s voters. By every other indicator - voter registrations, growing black and hispanic support, the crumbling entertainment and sports complex, the crumbling mainstream media, the ascendent alternative media, millions of new gun owners, backlash against the riots, slowly fading coronavirus hysteria, and off-the-charts attendance and enthusiasm at Trump rallies - Trump’s winning by a country mile.
And let’s not forget Hunter Biden’s hard drive, much as the corruptocracy, Twitter, Facebook, and most of the mainstream media would like us to. The revelations are important not because they reveal that the Bidens are a criminal enterprise - we already knew that - but because they further confirm the suspicions of millions of street-smart, disaffected Americans: our country is a corruptocracy.
If Trump wins and quells the Super Tantrum, he’ll have to do more than give voice to the disaffected. He’s forced the corruptocrats from the depths of their swamp, and he may or may not be blackmailing them for his own purposes. But not a drop of swamp has been drained, and if nothing happens the next four years, Trump’s tenure will be nothing more than a feel-good fantasy for his fans.
He’ll have to either blackmail paid up swampsters William Barr and Christopher Wray to do their jobs or get rid of them for people who will. Nothing less than indictments and prosecutions that cuts a wide swath across the corruptocracy - Clapper, Brennan, Comey, Mueller, Page, Strzok, Haspel, the Biden crime family, Obama, the Clintons, many of the listings in Jeffrey Epstein’s black book, and the rest of their insidious ilk - will do. Arresting Hunter and Joe Biden the day after the election would be a good start.
Trump must put up or shut up on draining the swamp before he can proceed to his long list of other unfinished business. The swamp is the inevitable backwash of a government that has arrogated unlimited power to itself, has first claim on everything produced within the United States, issues debt without limit, and maintains a confederated global empire. Power creates corruptocracies. There is a one in a trillion chance that Trump or any other ostensible outsider changes any of this, and a one in a quadrillion chance that the system reforms itself.
Trump or no Trump, the disaffected will get more disaffected, at least until the system collapses, which it will. The failing of all governments is that they can’t produce, only coerce. What they can force their citizens to produce is astonishingly low compared to what those citizens would produce if left to their own devices in free markets. The productive economy is straining under the tax and debt loads it’s being forced to carry. The debt orgy this year is probably the last straw. The shut-down real economy and debt-bloated financial markets will force a reckoning.
That reckoning will be global and governments will get smaller. Not because anyone within them experiences an intellectual conversion towards less government - and consequently less power - but because they are bankrupt and access to credit will be severely limited. Central banks may continue to buy their governments’ debt with their own devalued debt, but that daisy chain will come to an end as well. A bear market in debt of all stripes and a bull market in interest rates loom. The silver lining: long suffering savers (both of them) and creditors will finally be compensated for the credit risks they bear.
With the crumbling of governments will come the crumbling of current political institutions and boundaries. The breakdown of the corrupt and doomed old order presents the opportunity for the establishment of new orders. What seems inconceivable now may occur with astonishing speed. A year ago, who envisioned what’s transpired so far in 2020?
Millions of salt-of-the-earth, common sense Americans have watched in horror as their country has imploded from lockdown insanity and riots. There’s an exodus from urban hellholes to safer and saner locales. The response to those who say breakdown can’t happen is that it’s already begun.
Alasdair Macleod is writing about Europe, but what he says applies to the United States: "The fate of the euro will be shared with the majority - if not all - of other fiat currencies for reasons specific to them. The recovery from the ashes of government incompetence can be swift - a matter of a year or two, so long as successor governments quickly learn that free markets, sound money and minimal interference from government are all required for the restoration of economic progress. Additionally, all socialist policies must be discarded, and the profit motive and individual wealth creation embraced." - “The destruction of the euro,” Alasdair Macleod, goldmoney.com, October 22, 2020
There will be jurisdictions, some borne out of secession or insurrection, that will institute “free markets, sound money, and minimal interference from government,” along with the concomitant essentials: freedom and the protection of individual rights, because they work and have worked throughout history. They are the quickest way to recover from economic and financial devastation. Most importantly, freedom is the only moral system, the only system compatible with productive survival, and the only system that promotes human happiness. Freedom, rather than Trump, represents the best hope for the righteously disaffected."
"Market Fantasy Updates 10/28/20"
"Market Fantasy Updates 10/28/20"
Down the rabbit hole of psychopathic greed and insanity...
Only the consequences are real - to you!
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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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"Get ready for the biggest collapse in the history of mankind. It will be
devastating and reach all parts of society, economic, financial, political & social."
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Gregory Mannarino, AM 10/28/20
"Critical Alert:
Europe Is Shutting Down. Pan-Sell Off. Must Watch"
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Updated live.
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Daily Update (October 27th to 29th)
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And now. The End game...
Tuesday, October 27, 2020
Greg Hunter, "2021 A Year of Mass Bankruptcy"
"2021 A Year of Mass Bankruptcy"
By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
"Financial writer John Rubino says, “2021 is going to be a pivotal year” in the debt markets. Rubino says lots of debt will either be bailed out or defaulted on in some way. Because of CV19, there is no getting around this. The debt clock has been pushed forward by years. One too huge to hide debt problem are heavily indebted U.S. states and cities. Rubino says, “You have to call this a scam because years ago, they decided to offer wildly over generous pensions to public sector unions. In return for that, the public sector unions elected people who would keep on doing that and keep the gravy train going. Back then, it worked, but now they are all retiring, and these states and cities are heading for some version of bankruptcy at an accelerated rate. It was always going to happen in the next 10 years, but with the pandemic, the time frame has been moved way up. So, probably 2021 will be a year where a lot of these guys hit a wall where they have no choice but to default on a lot of their obligations. That’s going to throw the financial system into turmoil.”
Rubino points out, “If they can’t pay their bills, they can’t pay their bills. If it can’t happen, it won’t happen. So, you get effective bankruptcy via defaults for a lot of these places. That means massive layoffs of city and state workers and turmoil in the bond market. That kind of thing alone is enough to send the U.S. back into recession assuming we are out of recession when it happens. If you combine this with all the other stuff that will be going on, it is going to be one of those perfect storm scenarios where everywhere you look, somebody is in trouble and demanding a federal bailout. The federal government has a printing press. They can bail out Illinois mismanagement and Chicago mismanagement and basically bail out the politicians who did all of these things. This will come at the cost of the financial markets in general and the currency markets in particular. When they see trillions of dollars in bailouts here and trillions of bailouts there, they will conclude maybe you don’t want to hold the currency of the country that is doing this. Then the U.S. starts looking a lot like Illinois does now, not AAA credit and that is when the debt spiral starts. This causes people to lose faith in the currency, and then it’s game over. There are mass layoffs coming one way or another. It’s just a question of who gets laid off.”
Rubino also says, “A lot of these cities and states are pinning their hopes on a bailout because they can’t fix things themselves. They have screwed things up to a point to say there is no local fix that is feasible. So, they are hoping the Fed creates $3 trillion or $4 trillion new dollars and just hands it to them. There are no winners in any of this. There are people who lose less badly than others. You can drive yourself crazy talking about the horrible things that are going to happen as we run out of money as things stop working. One of the things that will happen is there will be civil unrest, and there will be slower and slower police response time. The world will get very threatening at some point. There is no good way out of this. Everything is a choice of types of pain. That’s all we have left. Do you want this kind of a crisis or that kind of a crisis?”
Join Greg Hunter as he goes One-on-One with John Rubino,
founder of the popular website DollarCollapse.com.
"Covid-19 Pandemic Updates 10/28/20"
Oct 28, 2020, 2:15 AM ET:
• Hospitals around the U.S. are reeling, many of them in parts of the country that initially had been spared the worst.
• Several U.S. cities have announced new restrictions: Newark ordered nonessential businesses to close at 8 p.m. and Chicago will halt indoor dining.
Oct 28, 2020 2:15 AM ET:
Coronavirus Map: Tracking the Global Outbreak The coronavirus pandemic has sickened more than 43,978,100
people, according to official counts, including 8,851,528 Americans.
Oct 28, 2020 2:15 AM ET:
Coronavirus in the U.S.: Latest Map and Case Count◆
OCT 28, 2020 3:21 PM: "France Joins Germany In Reviving Nationwide Lockdown As COVID-19 Cases Soar Across Europe: Live Updates"
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Updated 10/28/20, 3:24 AM ET
Click image for larger size.
"Creditors Finally Wake Up To An Apocalyptic Reality: Bond Losses As High As 99%"
"Creditors Finally Wake Up To An Apocalyptic Reality:
Bond Losses As High As 99%"
by Epic Economist
"The reckoning day for a massive default crisis has finally arrived. The loosen Federal Reserve policies have turned out to be the trigger to a major debt bubble that will crush a dramatic number of businesses for good while disrupting all the prospects for a swift economic recovery.
We're in the middle of a new era of U.S. businesses bankruptcies, and 99% of the losses experienced so far are related to bond defaults. In this video, we analyze the current economic landscape that points to a major corporate debt bubble burst has just started.
Economists have been alerting that a default cycle was forming and it would be marked by record low recovery rates. The first signal for it was the disconnect between fundamentals and asset prices, resultant from the Fed's constant manipulation of markets, then the huge amount of debt upon debt, most of it secured. And finally, the years of covenant-lite deals which obliterated creditor protections.
Now, a recent publishing described that bondholders are battling over recoveries as low as 1 cent. After seeing an economy hardly hit by the health crisis, which prompted widespread shutdowns that sparked a major spike in bankruptcy filings, many lenders are starting to realize their claims have become entirely pointless. Which means, many unsecured creditors now face the unenviable prospect of walking away with just pennies.
This epic collapse in recoveries can be seen in the current price of retailers' bonds, some of which have the lowest-priced debt, worth just 0.125 cents on the dollar. This year, the median value for companies’ cheapest debt in credit derivatives auctions is merely 3.5 cents on the dollar, an all-time low which is far below the past 23.4 cent median. Such derisive figures corroborate with the assertion that record-low recoveries for bondholders are now the norm.
Desperate to generate larger returns in a decade of rock-bottom interest rates, money managers bargained away legal protections, embraced ever-widening loopholes, and decided to turn a blind eye to questionable earnings projections. While corporations took advantage and overindulged on astronomical amounts of debt that many now cannot repay or refinance.
Of course, the Fed's extraordinary monetary policies are one of the main reasons for this substantial surge in corporate debt, but now, amid a new bout of economic pain, the effects of those policies are coming to bear.
A study by LCD examined the debt cushion of outstanding loans discovered that today’s covenant-lite deals have almost no debt cushion beneath them, which significantly reduces what an investor can recover on a loan if that credit defaults."
"Exposed: Biden’s Deep Corruption"
"Exposed: Biden’s Deep Corruption"
by Jim Rickards
"I try to limit my analysis to markets while leaving politics out of it, but sometimes I have no choice but to focus on politics. This is one of those times. Their potential impact on markets is simply too great to ignore. Despite media blackouts and social media censorship, most Americans have by now heard about the Biden family scandals involving China, Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan (scandals involving other countries may pop up in the next week before the election).
The basic outline is simple. While Joe Biden was Vice President, and after he left office, his son, Hunter Biden, working with several partners, including Dennis Archer, Tony Bobulinski and others, reached out to oligarchs and parties with links to the Communist Party of China to structure deals. These transactions involved millions of dollars of payments to Biden family members in exchange for White House meetings and government favors from Joe Biden.
Payments were disguised as "consulting fees," "management fees," and "director fees," but little or no work was performed, and expertise in the needed areas was completely lacking on Hunter Biden's part. The money was split, with a share going to Joe Biden. He did not receive the money directly. Instead, it was paid to Hunter and Joe's brothers, Frank and Jim, through shelf companies who could then direct the money to Joe through less suspicious channels or simply buy homes or other amenities for him as his "share."
Not “Russian Disinformation”: These allegations are not based merely on suspicion or inference. The Hunter Biden laptop contains thousands of emails and photographs that confirm the story. The Director of National Intelligence has confirmed that the laptop is not Russian disinformation. The FBI has confirmed they are conducting a money-laundering investigation using the laptop information.
Now, Bobulinski has come forward with direct testimony about meeting face-to-face with Joe Biden. He has met with the FBI and turned over three cell phones with thousands more emails. Bobulinski has also confirmed that an email message with his name found on Hunter Biden's laptop is authentic. More information is in the process of being released by former Biden associates other than Bobulinski.
The initial leaks of information have turned into a flood. Normally this would either disqualify a presidential candidate or ensure his defeat. But, due to the pro-Biden media blackout, it's not clear if enough Americans have heard about this or if enough people even care. Biden is simply the anti-Trump candidate, and Trump opponents would vote for anyone who was opposing him. Biden is almost incidental.
Why Scandals Blow Over: One problem with American political scandals is that they're so technical and complicated that the perpetrators can create a fog around the issue, the media can choose not to do their jobs, and the American people can hardly be blamed for losing interest after a year or two of no accountability.
When the scandals arise in bureaucracies like the FBI or CIA, the trail of responsibility is even more difficult because the players have administrative titles in complex organizations that no normal person can reasonably be expected to understand. When you add delay, lost memories, classified documents (which are classified for no reason other than to hide a paper trail) and bureaucratic jargon, it's no wonder that investigators are stymied and that citizens give up on ever getting to the bottom of things. The biggest loser is the country itself because once the crooks realize they can get away with anything, they're back at their old tricks in no time.
The Biden family scandal exhibits all of those characteristics. The illegal dealings get lost in a maze of holding companies, special purpose subsidiaries, and books and records held in places like the Cayman Islands and Macau.
The political favors are complicated (approving Chinese acquisitions of sensitive U.S. technology by disabling national security filters like the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States), and the money never goes directly to Joe Biden (it gets filtered through bagmen and cutouts like his son Hunter and his brothers Frank and Jim).
We'll see if the Biden corruption scandal gets traction or affects the election. But before the entire scandal gets lost in the D.C. cover-up machine, a Wall Street Journal article spells out its full implications. It's by Kimberley Strassel. She lays out what is known and verified and connects the dots that stretch from Ukraine to China. It's a devastating case.
If Biden loses the election, he may face criminal charges stemming from this international shakedown operation. If Biden wins the election, he may be able to squash the investigation, but U.S. national security will be compromised by all of his backroom deals with China. As a result, China will be able to blackmail Biden and his family by releasing additional emails, photos and videos.
It's a sad day for America when public service gets this corrupt. We may or may not be able to stop this reprehensible conduct in the future. Either way, we owe it to ourselves to understand as much as we can today. But will it actually affect the election?
Don’t Listen to Wall Street: My election prediction model has many factors with different weights. I update it constantly to add or delete certain factors or change the weights as circumstances change. I also incorporate other models in my models provided they add value.
One factor I have always relied on is Wall Street sentiment. Is that because Wall Street is really good at forecasting? No! Quite the opposite. Wall Street forecasting is among the worst in the world. They did not see the 2008 crash coming. They did not see the 2020 crash coming. Their forecasting ability is especially bad when it comes to politics. Remember gurus like Paul Elliott and the hedge fund crowd who were sure Mitt Romney would win in 2012? The fact is, Wall Street is good at making money, (for themselves) but they don't understand politics or everyday Americans.
Basically, what I do is figure out what Wall Street thinks and then do the opposite. Investors are set up for a Biden victory on Election Day with bets on stocks that will supposedly benefit from Biden's policies, including alternative energy (The Green New Deal) and cannabis. The latest betting odds (a venue where Wall Street denizens are active participants) show Biden with a 65.8% chance of winning compared to a 34.2% chance for Trump. My models show that Trump will win, but it will be close, and it's impossible to rule out a Biden victory.
Still, it's not prudent to place big bets with your portfolio one way or the other. The best approach, for now, is to reduce equity exposure, increase cash (which reduces volatility) and to allocate 10% of your investable assets to gold, which will perform well regardless of who wins. In the meantime, strap yourself in. It’s going to be a wild ride these next few weeks (or months)."
Gregory Mannarino, "#FAKE The Elusive "Stimulus" Will NOT Help The Economy, Its Not Even Meant To"
"A Look to the Heavens"
“Like delicate cosmic petals, these clouds of interstellar dust and gas have blossomed 1,300 light-years away in the fertile star fields of the constellation Cepheus. Sometimes called the Iris Nebula and dutifully cataloged as NGC 7023 this is not the only nebula in the sky to evoke the imagery of flowers. Still, this remarkable image shows off the Iris Nebula's range of colors and symmetries in impressive detail. Within the Iris, dusty nebular material surrounds a hot, young star.
The dominant color of the brighter reflection nebula is blue, characteristic of dust grains reflecting starlight. Central filaments of the dusty clouds glow with a faint reddish photoluminesence as some dust grains effectively convert the star's invisible ultraviolet radiation to visible red light. Infrared observations indicate that this nebula may contain complex carbon molecules known as PAHs. The bright blue portion of the Iris Nebula is about six light-years across.”
- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120929.html
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