Thursday, December 17, 2020

"Market Fantasy Updates AM 12/17/20

"Market Fantasy Updates AM 12/17/20
"Down the rabbit hole of psychopathic greed and insanity...
Only the consequences are real - to you!
"The more I see of the monied classes, 
the better I understand the guillotine."
- George Bernard Shaw
"Initial Jobless Claims Surge To Highest In Almost 4 Month"
Click image for larger size.
"After rising for three of the last four weeks (with a big surge in the previous week) as lockdowns re-accelerate across America, analysts expected initial jobless claims to slow modestly this week, but instead claims soared from an upwardly revised 862k to 885k - the highest number of Americans seeking first-time unemployment benefits since September. Illinois and California saw the biggest surge in jobless claims as Texas and Georgia improved most. 
Click image for larger size.
These numbers are about to get dramatically worse as the widespread lockdowns imposed on Americans this holiday season begin to really bite." Source: Bloomberg
Updated live.
Daily Update (Dec. 16th)
Insanity... 
And now... The End Game...

Must Watch! Gregory Mannarino, “Situation Hyper-Critical! The Meltdown Accelerating - Be Really For Anything”

Gregory Mannarino, 
AM 12/17/20: “Situation Hyper-Critical! 
The Meltdown Accelerating - Be Really For Anything”

"How It Really Should Be"


"Parallel Ballots Cast In 7 States: Election Not Over"

"Parallel Ballots Cast In 7 States:
Election Not Over"
by GlobalIntelHub

"If you turn on TV, they will play a reality for you that affects your brain in ways that science is only beginning to understand. But the results are clear - TV affects the subconscious brain in subliminal programming of the reptilian brain. The irony about the control paradigm as presented by the globalists is that everyone has the ultimate vote that counts: TURN OFF YOUR TV. TV is literally the only control they have over the brains (or what's left of them) of the masses. While the Biden vomitorium had the appearance of 'closure' to leftists and those who can't see beyond their TV screens, Electors in 7 states cast dueling votes for Trump:

Republican electors in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico cast alternative slates of votes for President Donald Trump on Dec. 14, as the certified Democrat electors in the same states cast votes for former Vice President Joe Biden.

While there’s precedent for dueling sets of electors casting votes in a presidential election, the number of states involved in the action sent the 2020 election into uncharted territory. Democrats successfully executed the same gambit in Hawaii in 1960 by casting an alternative set of votes for John F. Kennedy after the state’s governor certified the electors for Richard Nixon.

Aside from speculation on the internet, if we are following 'house rules' laid out in the constitution, here is what happens next. On January 6th in a Congressional session Vice President Mike Pence counts the votes. If he receives votes for Biden and Trump from the same state, the state would likely be cancelled (voided). If the 7 states were deleted for Biden, neither candidate would have the 270 required, and the solution would be to have the Congress vote for President, but with 1 state holding 1 vote each, which has a Republican majority in both houses. In this scenario, Congress would re-elect President Trump.

Furthermore, this is not without precedent, something far more extreme happened in 1876: The results of the election remain among the most disputed ever. Although it is not disputed that Tilden outpolled Hayes in the popular vote, after a first count of votes, Tilden had won 184 electoral votes to Hayes's 165, with 20 votes from four states unresolved: in Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina, each party reported its candidate had won the state, while in Oregon, one elector was replaced after being declared illegal for being an "elected or appointed official". The question of who should have been awarded these electoral votes is the source of the continued controversy. An informal deal was struck to resolve the dispute: the Compromise of 1877, which awarded all 20 electoral votes to Hayes; in return for the Democrats' acquiescence to Hayes' election, the Republicans agreed to withdraw federal troops from the South, ending Reconstruction.

Also, January 6, 2021 is 22 days away. That's more time for cases to work through the courts. Also, DNI Ratcliffe who said 'We'll see if there's a Biden Administration' is going to release information on the criminal investigation of Hunter Biden and the China situation. Corruption may just be the tip of the iceberg. He may be a Chinese Spy, blackmailed by the Chinese, or a combination therein. Although the case is against Hunter and not Joe Biden, Joe Biden is named in the information as being very close to the Chinese operation "Have keys made for me."

Aside from Zero Hedge, watch theepochtimes.com and other alternative media that aren't compromised. As explained in Splitting Pennies - the world is not as it seems."
Related:

Wednesday, December 16, 2020

“Wealthy Escape California; Fed Rescues Wall St.; Million Dollar Lake Havasu; Joel Osteen Bailout”

Jeremiah Babe,
“Wealthy Escape California; Fed Rescues Wall St.; 
Million Dollar Lake Havasu; Joel Osteen Bailout”

"Americans Are Panic Buying Lots Of Food As Fears Of A Deep Dark Winter Continue To Rise"

"Americans Are Panic Buying Lots Of Food As
 Fears Of A Deep Dark Winter Continue To Rise"
by Epic Economist

"Panic buying is getting worse amongst anxious consumers as we approach Christmas and New Year's Eve celebrations. Since the burst of the sanitary outbreak, we have witnessed several rounds of panic purchases that wiped out grocery shelves and prompted supply shortages all over the nation. After new lockdowns started to be enforced in several states, people rushed into the stores one more time to stockpile on essentials fearing strict movement limitations amid a dark winter. 

Now, as festivities get closer, buyers have been massively stocking up on holidays related goods, even causing an unexpected shortage in Christmas trees due to the sudden and incredibly high spike in demand. But while some are being driven by panic, others have already exhausted all of their options and are being driven by complete desperation. That's what we are going to discuss in this video. 

Goods have been flying off the shelves, and this time around their purchases aren't limited to toilet paper and cleaning supplies. Wine, meat, dairy products, pasta, baking mixes, and several holidays related products are disappearing from stores fairly quickly. Although some major food retailers have affirmed to have enough to attend to the demand, in multiple locations they have started to reinstate purchase limits on high-demand items, which has sparked anxiety among shoppers. Retailers have affirmed it's essential that to impose restrictions to prevent buyers from hoarding and ensure there won't be another round of shortages. 

However, due to transportation issues supply shortages are expected to occur during the winter, and prices are projected to keep soaring in months ahead. At this stage of the crisis, the panic buying trend has extended its range to several different products, as Iacocca revealed. According to the National Retail Federation, the sale of holiday decorations, candy and gifts is expected to rise this year too. But as some of the most preferred items are already scarce on the shelves, prices for holiday items are also expected to rise. 

The latest U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data pointed out that the consumer price index is up 3.6%. This current round of panic-driven stockpiling tendencies is being led by Americans' increasing fear of what might happen during this dark winter as well as a need for comfort by relying on traditions to shift the focus from the tragic events we have experienced this year. However, for some, this growing desire of running away from the spectrum of disconcerting news and upsetting circumstances has become a little too extreme, and now, they have been trying to overcompensate by celebrating the holidays to the max. 

Consequently, and also very unexpectedly, a Christmas tree shortage is being registered across the nation. Jennifer Greene, the executive director of North Carolina Christmas Tree Association highlighted that media coverage about tree shortages may have spurred some of the panic buying behavior, but there are underlying reasons why people are in a hurry to guarantee their valued holiday symbol. “I think people want some joy and a bright spot, a light at the end of the tunnel,” Greene said. “It’s been a rough year for everyone, and Christmas is a happy time. They’re wanting to get that earlier and make it last longer in such a gloomy year.”

From food to cleaning products and even Christmas trees, panic buying is a reflection of how the sanitary outbreak and its collateral damages have impacted on the mindset of our population. In any case, those who can still work from home and buy their own food are on the most fortunate side of the spectrum. 

A new survey conducted by market research company OnePoll found that roughly 4 in 10 Americans report that they experienced food insecurity for the first time this year, with about half of them revealing they’ve struggled to afford food, while 37% affirmed to have skipped meals so there was enough food for their children to eat. On average, there was a 60% increase in those seeking help from food banks across the nation. In some counties, one in two children are now facing hunger. 

To make things worse, the high level of demand is pushing several pantries to an inevitable food cliff, which means many of them are about to exhaust their resources. Additionally, with the expiration of federal aid programs set to happen in a couple of weeks, millions more are likely to suffer from the desperation and anguish of not knowing when it will be their next meal. And as the economic deterioration deepens, we will be headed to more challenges as we enter 2021."

"Market Fantasy Updates PM 12/16/20"

"Market Fantasy Updates PM 12/16/20"
Down the rabbit hole of psychopathic greed and insanity...
Only the consequences are real - to you!
Gregory Mannarino, PM 12/16/20:
"Alert: The Fed. Begins A New Frankenstein Phase,
 Stocks Hit Record Highs"
"The more I see of the monied classes, 
the better I understand the guillotine."
- George Bernard Shaw
Updated live.
Daily Update (Dec. 16th)
Insanity... 
And now... The End Game...

Musical Interlude: Liquid Mind, "Unity"

Liquid Mind, "Unity"

"A Very Deep Look To The Heavens"

"The Hubble Deep Field: 
The Most Important Image Ever Taken"

"In 2003, the Hubble Space Telescope took the image of a millenium, an image that shows our place in the universe. Anyone who understands what this image represents, is forever changed by it."- YouTube/NASA

Full screen recommended.

"It helps to put things in perspective here on our frenetic little planet with a look at this extraordinarily powerful and moving video of the Hubble Space Telescope mapping of the Universe, whose known size is 78 billion light years across. The video of the images is the equivalent of using a "time machine" to look into the past to witness the early formation of galaxies, perhaps less than one billion years after the universe's birth in the Big Bang.

The video includes mankind's deepest, most detailed optical view of the universe called the Hubble Deep Field (HDF). One of the stunning images was assembled from 342 separate exposures taken with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) for ten consecutive days. Representing a narrow "keyhole" view stretching to the visible horizon of the universe, the HDF image covers a speck of the sky only about the width of a dime located 75 feet away. Though the field is a very small sample of the heavens, it is considered representative of the typical distribution of galaxies in space because the universe, statistically, looks largely the same in all directions. Gazing into this small field, Hubble uncovered a bewildering assortment of at least 1,500 galaxies at various stages of evolution.

Most of the galaxies are so faint (nearly 30th magnitude or about four-billion times fainter than can be seen by the human eye) they have never before been seen by even the largest telescopes. Some fraction of the galaxies in this menagerie probably date back to nearly the beginning of the universe. "The variety of galaxies we see is amazing. In time these Hubble data could turn out to be the double helix of galaxy formation. We are clearly seeing some of the galaxies as they were more than ten billion years ago, in the process of formation," said Robert Williams, Director of the Space Telescope Science Institute Baltimore, Maryland. "As the images have come up on our screens, we have not been able to keep from wondering if we might somehow be seeing our own origins in all of this."
"When I heard the learn’d astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged
in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams,
to add, divide, and measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where
he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars."

- Walt Whitman
"A Universe of 2 Trillion Galaxies"
"In 2016, a study published in The Astrophysical Journal and led by Christopher Conselice of the University of Nottingham using 3D modeling of images collected over 20 years by the Hubble Space Telescope concluded that there are more than two trillion galaxies in the observable universe."
"In this galaxy, there's a mathematical probability of three billion Earth-type planets. And in all of the universe, 2 trillion galaxies like this. And in all of that... and perhaps more, only one of each of us."
- "Dr. Leonard McCoy"

"In Ordinary Times..."

"In ordinary times we get along surprisingly well, on the whole, without ever discovering what our faith really is. If, now and again, this remote and academic problem is so unmannerly as to thrust its way into our minds, there are plenty of things we can do to drive the intruder away. We can get the car out or go to a party or to the cinema or read a detective story or have a row with a district council or write a letter to the papers about the habits of the nightjar or Shakespeare's use of nautical metaphor. Thus we build up a defense mechanism against self-questioning because, to tell the truth, we are very much afraid of ourselves."
- Dorothy L. Sayers

The Poet: Mark Jarman, "Coyotes"

"Coyotes"

"Is this world truly fallen? They say no.
For there's the new moon, there's the Milky Way,
There's the rattler with a wren's egg in its mouth,
And there's the panting rabbit they will eat.
They sing their wild hymn on the dark slope,
Reading the stars like notes of hilarious music.
Is this a fallen world? How could it be?

And yet we're crying over the stars again,
And over the uncertainty of death,
Which we suspect will divide us all forever.
I'm tired of those who broadcast their certainties,
Constantly on their cell phones to their redeemer.
Is this a fallen world? For them it is.
But there's that starlit burst of animal laughter.

The day has sent its fires scattering.
The night has risen from its burning bed.
Our tears are proof that love is meant for life
And for the living. And this chorus of praise,
Which the pet dogs of the neighborhood are answering
Nostalgically, invites our answer, too.
Is this a fallen world? How could it be?"

~ Mark Jarman

I couldn't resist! lol

"Remember..."

"Remember, we all stumble, every one of us.
That's why it's a comfort to go hand in hand." 
- Emily Kimbrough

The Daily "Near You?"

KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Thanks for stopping by!

"Every Time..."

 

"JFK's Executive Order 11100 Abolishing the Federal Reserve"

"JFK's Executive Order 11100 Abolishing the Federal Reserve"
by John P. Curran

“Article 1, Section 8 of the US Constitution specifically says that Congress is the only body that can "coin money and regulate the value thereof." The US Constitution has never been amended to allow anyone other than Congress to coin and regulate currency. So what’s the Federal Reserve?

In 1910 Senator Nelson Aldrich, then Chairman of the National Monetary Commission, in collusion with representatives of the European central banks, devised a plan to pressure and deceive Congress into enacting legislation that would covertly establish a private central bank. This bank would assume control over the American economy by controlling the issuance of its money. After a huge public relations campaign, engineered by the foreign central banks, the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 was slipped through Congress during the Christmas recess, with many members of the Congress absent. President Woodrow Wilson, pressured by his political and financial backers, signed it on December 23, 1913. The act created the Federal Reserve System, a name carefully selected and designed to deceive. "Federal" would lead one to believe that this is a government organization. "Reserve" would lead one to believe that the currency is being backed by gold and silver. "System" was used in lieu of the word "bank" so that one would not conclude that a new central bank had been created.

In reality, the act created a private, for profit, central banking corporation owned by a cartel of private banks. The Federal Reserve Bank, a.k.a Federal Reserve System, is a Private Corporation. Black's Law Dictionary defines the "Federal Reserve System" as: "A Network of twelve central banks to which most national banks belong and to which state chartered banks may belong. Membership rules require investment of stock and minimum reserves." Privately-owned banks own the stock of the FED. Who owns the FED? The Rothschilds of London and Berlin; Lazard Brothers of Paris; Israel Moses Seif of Italy; Kuhn, Loeb and Warburg of Germany; and the Lehman Brothers, Goldman, Sachs and the Rockefeller families of New York. Did you know that the FED is the only for-profit corporation in America that is exempt from both federal and state taxes? The FED takes in trillions of dollars per year tax free! The banking families listed above get all that money.

The FED basically works like this: The government granted its power to create money to the FED banks. They create money, then loan it back to the government charging interest. The government levies income taxes to pay the interest on the debt. On this point, it's interesting to note that the Federal Reserve Act and the sixteenth amendment, which gave Congress the power to collect income taxes, were both passed in 1913. The incredible power of the FED over the economy is universally admitted. Any one person or any closely knit group who has a lot of money has a lot of power. Now imagine a group of people who have the power to create money. Imagine the power these people would have. This is exactly what the privately owned FED is!

An often overlooked aspect of John F. Kennedy's attempt to reform American society involves money. Kennedy apparently reasoned that by returning to the Constitution, which states that only Congress shall coin and regulate money, the soaring national debt could be reduced by not paying interest to the bankers of the Federal Reserve System, who print paper money then loan it to the government at interest. He moved in this area on June 4, 1963, by signing Executive Order 11110 which called for the issuance of $4,292,893,815 in United States Notes through the U.S. Treasury rather than the traditional Federal Reserve System. That same day, Kennedy signed a bill changing the backing of one and two dollar bills from silver to gold, adding strength to the weakened U.S. currency.

When Kennedy signed this Order, it returned to the federal government, specifically the Treasury Department, the Constitutional power to create and issue currency- money - without going through the privately owned Federal Reserve Bank. President Kennedy's Executive Order 11110 gave the Treasury Department the explicit authority: "to issue silver certificates against any silver bullion, silver, or standard silver dollars in the Treasury." This means that for every ounce of silver in the U.S. Treasury's vault, the government could introduce new money into circulation based on the silver bullion physically held there. As a result, more than $4 billion in United States Notes were brought into circulation in $2 and $5 denominations. $10 and $20 United States Notes were never circulated but were being printed by the Treasury Department when Kennedy was assassinated.

It appears obvious that President Kennedy knew the Federal Reserve Notes being used as the purported legal currency were contrary to the Constitution of the United States of America. Kennedy knew that if the silver-backed United States Notes were widely circulated, they would have eliminated the demand for Federal Reserve Notes. This is a very simple matter of economics. The USN was backed by silver and the FRN was not backed by anything of intrinsic value. Executive Order 11110 should have prevented the national debt from reaching its current level (virtually all of the nearly $20 trillion in federal debt has been created since 1963) if LBJ or any subsequent President were to enforce it. It would have almost immediately given the U.S. Government the ability to repay its debt without going to the private Federal Reserve Banks and being charged interest to create new "money". Executive Order 11110 gave the U.S.A. the ability to, once again, create its own money backed by silver and realm value worth something.

President Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963 and the United States Notes he had issued were immediately taken out of circulation. Federal Reserve Notes continued to serve as the legal currency of the nation. According to the United States Secret Service, 99% of all U.S. paper "currency" circulating in 1999 are Federal Reserve Notes. It seems very apparent that President Kennedy challenged the "powers that exist behind U.S. and world finance."

Perhaps the assassination of JFK was a warning to all future presidents not to interfere with the private Federal Reserve's control over the creation of money. The Latin phrase, “Cui bono” ("To whose benefit?," literally "as a benefit to whom?”), is frequently applied in determining motive for a crime. Ask yourself, who had the most to lose if Kennedy had lived, and who benefited the most from Kennedy’s assassination? The answer is the same to both questions."
"No man did more to expose the power of the FED than Louis T. McFadden, who was the Chairman of the House Banking Committee back in the 1930s. In describing the FED, he remarked in the Congressional Record, House pages 1295 and 1296 on June 10, 1932: "Mr. Chairman, we have in this country one of the most corrupt institutions the world has ever known. I refer to the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal reserve banks. The Federal Reserve Board, a Government Board, has cheated the Government of the United States and he people of the United States out of enough money to pay the national debt. The depredations and the iniquities of the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal reserve banks acting together have cost this country enough money to pay the national debt several times over. This evil institution has impoverished and ruined the people of the United States; has bankrupted itself, and has practically bankrupted our Government. It has done this through the maladministration of that law by which the Federal Reserve Board, and through the corrupt practices of the moneyed vultures who control it."

Some people think the Federal Reserve Banks are United States Government institutions. They are not Government institutions, departments, or agencies. They are private credit monopolies which prey upon the people of the United States for the benefit of themselves and their foreign customers. Those 12 private credit monopolies were deceitfully placed upon this country by bankers who came here from Europe and who repaid us for our hospitality by undermining our American institutions.

The FED basically works like this: The government granted its power to create money to the FED banks. They create money, then loan it back to the government charging interest. The government levies income taxes to pay the interest on the debt. On this point, it's interesting to note that the Federal Reserve Act and the sixteenth amendment, which gave congress the power to collect income taxes, were both passed in 1913. The incredible power of the FED over the economy is universally admitted. Some people, especially in the banking and academic communities, even support it. On the other hand, there are those, such as President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, that have spoken out against it. His efforts were spoken about in Jim Marrs' 1990 book "Crossfire":

"Another overlooked aspect of Kennedy's attempt to reform American society involves money. Kennedy apparently reasoned that by returning to the constitution, which states that only Congress shall coin and regulate money, the soaring national debt could be reduced by not paying interest to the bankers of the Federal Reserve System, who print paper money then loan it to the government at interest. He moved in this area on June 4, 1963, by signing Executive Order 11110 which called for the issuance of $4,292,893,815 in United States Notes through the U.S. Treasury rather than the traditional Federal Reserve System. That same day, Kennedy signed a bill changing the backing of one and two dollar bills from silver to gold, adding strength to the weakened U.S. currency.

Kennedy's comptroller of the currency, James J. Saxon, had been at odds with the powerful Federal Reserve Board for some time, encouraging broader investment and lending powers for banks that were not part of the Federal Reserve system. Saxon also had decided that non-Reserve banks could underwrite state and local general obligation bonds, again weakening the dominant Federal Reserve banks. In a comment made to a Columbia University class on Nov. 12, 1963, ten days before his assassination, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy allegedly said: "The high office of the President has been used to foment a plot to destroy the American's freedom and before I leave office, I must inform the citizens of this plight. In this matter, John Fitzgerald Kennedy appears to be the subject of his own book... a true "Profile of Courage."
Executive Order 11110
AMENDMENT OF EXECUTIVE ORDER NO. 10289 AS AMENDED, RELATING TO THE PERFORMANCE OF CERTAIN FUNCTIONS AFFECTING THE DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY. By virtue of the authority vested in me by section 301 of title 3 of the United States Code, it is ordered as follows:

SECTION 1. Executive Order No. 10289 of September 19, 1951, as amended, is hereby further amended — (a) By adding at the end of paragraph 1 thereof the following subparagraph (j): "(j) The authority vested in the President by paragraph (b) of section 43 of the Act of May 12, 1933, as amended (31 U.S.C. 821 (b)), to issue silver certificates against any silver bullion, silver, or standard silver dollars in the Treasury not then held for redemption of any outstanding silver certificates, to prescribe the denominations of such silver certificates, and to coin standard silver dollars and subsidiary silver currency for their redemption," and (b) By revoking subparagraphs (b) and (c) of paragraph 2 thereof. SECTION 2. The amendment made by this Order shall not affect any act done, or any right accruing or accrued or any suit or proceeding had or commenced in any civil or criminal cause prior to the date of this Order but all such liabilities shall continue and may be enforced as if said amendments had not been made."
JOHN F. KENNEDY
THE WHITE HOUSE
June 4, 1963
Once again, Executive Order 11110 is still valid. According to Title 3, United States Code, Section 301 dated January 26, 1998: The 1974 and 1987 amendments, added after Kennedy's 1963 amendment, did not change or alter any part of Kennedy's EO 11110. A search of Presidential Directives has shown no reference to any alterations, suspensions, or changes to EO 11110."

Gregory Mannarino, "Critical Updates: Retail Sales Crushed! Bitcoin Breaks 20K, Gold, Silver, Dollar, More!"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 12/16/20:
"Critical Updates: Retail Sales Crushed! 
Bitcoin Breaks 20K, Gold, Silver, Dollar, More!"

"Handing Out Candy in a Playground"

"Handing Out Candy in a Playground"
By Bill Bonner

WEST RIVER, MARYLAND – “It feels like 1999,” says a friend. “Then, it was the dot-coms trading at ridiculous prices. Now, it’s everything. At the office yesterday, lunch was delivered by DoorDash. Friends who come to Baltimore frequently use Airbnb to find a place to stay. Unlike many of the dot-coms of 1999, these hip, new companies are operating in the real world and generating real revenues. But they’re not making any money. They lose money. That is, they destroy wealth, they don’t create it. That’s what happens when it costs more to provide a service or a product than you get from selling it. Not only do you lose money, but capital is wasted… and lost forever.

Das Kapital is our subject today… and tomorrow, too. And our hypothesis is that just as bad money drives out good money (Gresham’s Law), bad capital destroys good capital (Bonner’s Law). Capital is what creates wealth. It is yesterday’s achievements. It is savings. It is factories, banks, markets, patents, machines, highways, knowledge, skills, pipelines, and depots. Capital is what makes one country rich and another poor. And real capital is what the geniuses at the Federal Reserve are now destroying. So, let’s look more closely…

Gamblers Win: The trouble with Airbnb, DoorDash, and hundreds of others is not just that they’re losing money… but that their business models will probably never make any money. They can increase sales. But if they try to widen their margins, competitors take away their market share.

This is also the problem with Elon Musk’s Tesla. It made headlines by being a big, bold mover… first and foremost in the electric car market. But it’s not like Amazon. People who want a new toaster oven can turn to Amazon to find the best deal at the best price. But they can’t turn to Tesla to find the best electric car.

For most consumers, buying an auto… or even buying lunch… is worth spending a little time in order to find what you want at the lowest price. And now that the major automakers are making electric cars, too, Tesla is just one of many different choices. And it has many competitive disadvantages (lack of distributors… fewer service networks… etc.) That doesn’t stop investors from believing that they can make a buck by buying TSLA or any of the other fast-moving stocks of today.

In the last few days, both Airbnb and DoorDash have sold shares to raise money (to cover their losses). And both new share offerings soared soon after making early investors billions of dollars in profits. The gamblers made money. But did the world gain capital? Or did it lose it? Is the world better off when investors provide capital to capital-destroying enterprises?

Sharp Drop: And here, we turn to Bloomberg. For while the sleek, rich hustlers are making money by trading stocks in companies that lose capital, the average person, who never had much of it in the first place, is running out of the little he had…

"Americans’ cash cushions have been declining for months, most acutely among low-income households, underscoring the already-precarious financial situation of the millions of people who may soon lose their jobless benefits. The median household checking account balance surged by 65% after the arrival of stimulus checks in April, formally known as Economic Impact Payments, but balances have steadily declined since May, according to a report published Wednesday by the JPMorgan Chase Institute.
[…]
JPMorgan Chase Institute, part of the biggest U.S. bank, estimates 9.4 million people are on track to lose their unemployment benefits at the end of the month without congressional action. The vast majority of those people are receiving Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, a program that offers jobless benefits to those not traditionally eligible like gig workers."

When the jobless benefits expire, what happens? Their spending will “drop sharply,” say the experts.

Fake-Money Package: So what to do about that? Don’t worry, Dear Reader, the feds are on the case. Here’s NBC News: "Lawmakers are trying to hammer out an agreement by Friday, when Congress hits the deadline to pass legislation to keep the government funded. Leaders from both parties hope to attach the Covid-19 aid package to the government funding bill. "We're not leaving, I assure you. We're not leaving until we finish this package," McConnell, R-Ky., promised. The “package,” of course, is full of money. And Dear Readers will accuse us of beating a dead horse when we point out that the feds have no money to put in the package.

But this nag is not dead… Far from it. Instead, it is prancing around in front of us… full of life. Who doesn’t believe that giving money is not only a good idea… but necessary? What economist doesn’t tell you that when the economy goes limp, you put some starch in it by increasing “demand?” And what politician won’t tell you that he is providing “relief to hard-working American families” by printing up walking-around money and handing it out all over town?

But what if they’re hard at work… say, for DoorDash… or the Small Business Administration? Or what if they are not working at all? Like a dirty old man heading for a playground, the feds are preparing to hand out more candy. But will it make the kids better off? Or will it just rot their teeth? We will see tomorrow…"

"How It Really Is"

 

And something else Grandma themed...
Full screen recommended.

"Covid-19 Pandemic Updates 12/16/20"

"Covid-19 Pandemic Updates 12/16/20"
Dec. 16, 2020 
By David Leonhardt

"Good morning. The U.S. again stands virtually alone in the severity of its outbreak. Down over there. Up over here. It’s happening again: For the second time this year, the United States has fallen behind nearly every other country in combating the virus.

The U.S. was not alone in suffering a resurgence this fall. Much of the world did. But many other countries responded to that surge with targeted new restrictions and, in a few cases, with an increase in rapid-result testing. Those measures seem to be working. Worldwide, the number of new cases has fallen over the past week.

In some countries, the declines are large: more than 50 percent over the past month in Belgium, France, Italy, Kenya and Saudi Arabia; more than 40 percent in Argentina and Morocco; more than 30 percent in India and Norway.

And in the U.S.? The number of new cases has risen 51 percent over the past month. The causes are not a mystery. The U.S. still lacks a coherent testing strategy, and large parts of the country continue to defy basic health advice. One example is Mitchell, a small South Dakota city, where deaths have spiked recently - including the loss of a beloved high school coach. Yet anti-mask protesters continue to undermine the local response.

Among their messages at a recent City Council meeting, as Annie Gowen of The Washington Post reported: “Positivity defeats the virus.”

Europe offers a telling contrast. Several European countries put new restrictions in place over the past month, and they made a difference, as you can see in the chart above. Still, the leaders of those countries remained unsatisfied with the progress - and announced further measures in recent days. London closed pubs and restaurants today. The Netherlands has shut gyms, cinemas, schools and nonessential shops until Jan. 19. Germany - a country that loves its Christmas rituals - is locking down for Christmas.

Parts of the U.S. have taken some measures, like requiring masks and limiting indoor dining. And cases here have leveled off in recent days. If anything, though, that’s further evidence that people are not powerless in the face of the virus. Reducing its spread - and the widespread death that will otherwise occur in coming months - is entirely possible.

“America’s outbreaks, reaching from California to Florida, are the result of the public and the country’s leaders never taking the virus seriously enough and, to the extent they did, letting their guard down prematurely,” German Lopez of Vox recently wrote. As Jaime Slaughter-Acey, an epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota, said, “It’s a situation that didn’t have to be.”

For more: Full shutdowns are often not necessary, The Times’s Yaryna Serkez explains. Sharply reducing the number of people in indoor spaces can have a huge effect."

 Dec. 16, 2020 7:52 AM ET: 
The coronavirus pandemic has sickened more than 73,588,900 
people, according to official counts, including 16,771,562 Americans.
At least 1,636,800 have died.

"The COVID Tracking Project"
Every day, our volunteers compile the latest numbers on tests, cases, 
hospitalizations, and patient outcomes from every US state and territory.

"Trump's 136 Special Powers if State of National Emergency Declared and Insurrection Act Invoked"

Michael Lewis, 
"Trump's 136 Special Powers if State of National 
Emergency Declared and Insurrection Act Invoked"
Related:

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Tuesday, December 15, 2020

"Suicide of a City"

"Suicide of a City"
by Jim Rickards

"I updated my economic forecast last month to include a recession in the first quarter of 2021, based on the reemergence of lockdowns. It was one of those forecasts I hoped I’d be wrong about. Yet, all of the news since then confirms its accuracy. With governors like New York State’s Andrew Cuomo, you can take it to the bank.

Cuomo has banned all indoor dining in New York City due to the rise in COVID-19 cases, starting today. But, the state’s contact tracing data reveal that restaurants and bars account for only 1.43% of recent infections. So Cuomo is destroying the city’s restaurant industry to prevent a negligible rise in cases, an industry that’s still reeling from the previous lockdown. Why?

Don’t Just Stand There! Politicians always have to be seen to be doing something. Whether it makes sense or not is irrelevant; what they care about is the appearance of doing something. I call it the Andrew Cuomo syndrome. The head of the New York State Restaurant Association argues the ban “makes little sense based on the state’s own numbers, and to make matters worse, we are offered no plan for survival to get through this shutdown.” “The government is shutting us down without actually justifying it with hardcore facts," says one restaurant owner adding, “We didn’t do anything to deserve a complete destruction of our business.”

But it’s not all bad news. Take-out, delivery and outdoor dining will still be allowed in the Big Apple. And who doesn’t want to dine outdoors in NYC in winter?

Meanwhile, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio is now raising the possibility of a "full shutdown" of the entire city. You can only imagine the economic impact of shutting down entirely. But locking down everything would be good news to Bill Gates.

Lockdowns Into 2022: He says bars and restaurants nationwide should “sadly” be closed for the next four to six months, and lockdowns should continue into 2022. But then again, Bill Gates doesn’t have to make a living as a waiter or bartender. No skin off his nose.

The problem is that Gates lives in an elite bubble where life is wonderful whether there's a pandemic or not. He's out of touch with everyday Americans and others around the world who make their living as bus drivers, bartenders, waiters, hair stylists, boutique store clerks and a thousand other jobs that make up 50% of all jobs and 45% of U.S. gross domestic product. Only an out of touch elite could support shutting down the economy and not realize you would destroy that economy and the jobs that go with it.

When the COVID-19 pandemic emerged, the Gates Foundation took a leading role in funding research and regurgitating conventional wisdom from the medical establishment about the need for lockdowns. But it turns out that lockdowns don't stop the spread of the virus.

The Cycle of the Virus: There are studies from 30 different countries around the world. Some had severe lockdowns, while others imposed relatively little restrictions, like Sweden. Here in the U.S., some states imposed hard lockdowns (New York), while others were more lax. South Dakota didn’t lock down at all. But all their experiences with the virus were basically the same. It hits, it runs wild for about eight to 10 weeks, and peaks at four or five weeks. After 10 weeks, it’s largely gone.

There could be another wave months later, but that eight to 10-week pattern is amazingly uniform, lockdown or no lockdown. There is no evidence that lockdowns stop the spread of the virus. I know that’s an unpopular opinion. I know that’s not politically correct. I don’t care. The science backs me up.

The China Model: It’s not that an extreme lockdown couldn’t work. If you mobilized half the population to keep an eye on the other half and imposed martial law, that would have some effect. But that’s not the real world. You can’t do that in the United States or in many places in the world outside of China. We wouldn’t tolerate it.

Most immunologists' and epidemiologists' views are being suppressed by the media, while a few who favor lockdowns are being heard and embraced by the politicians. The politicians know even less than the celebrity "experts" who have been consistently wrong.

Now that the disease is spreading again, lockdowns are being reimposed and family celebrations of the Holidays are being squashed. Despite all of the medical uncertainty, there are two things we can be certain of. The first is that the lockdown won't halt the spread. The second is that the lockdown will crush the economy. Lockdowns are extremely good at destroying the economy.

$2 Trillion of Lost Output: There will be a recession in the first quarter of 2021 because of these lockdowns. You don’t need a Ph.D. in economics to say that they’re going to cause another recession. The economy is going to end the year down about eight or nine percent from where it ended 2019. In a $22 trillion economy, that’s almost $2 trillion of lost output. And that’s assuming things don’t get much worse from here, which they may.

In the second quarter, the conventional wisdom at the time, what I call the happy talk was, “Yes, they closed all these restaurants, but they’ll reopen. And yes, they laid off all these workers, but we’ve got payroll protection plan loans and increased unemployment benefits. Everything will reopen in July and August and everything will be back to normal, there’ll be massive amounts of pent up demand,” et cetera.

At the time, I said that was nonsense, and the data has since shown that it was nonsense. Many of these restaurants never reopened. Many that did survive could barely make ends meet. Now they’re facing new lockdowns, which will be the final nail in the coffin for many. We’re going to have even more businesses fail, with permanent job losses, permanent failures, bankruptcies and defaulted loans.

Too Little, Too Late: My expectation is that we’re not going to see big relief bills. Some relief package will likely pass, of maybe $1 trillion. $1 trillion used to be real money, but now it almost seems like a starting place for budget negotiations. But it won’t be enough to make a significant difference.

Meanwhile, the Fed’s out of bullets, with interest rates at zero. They printed $3 trillion, but it didn’t do any good - nor will it. They could print three trillion more; it won’t make a difference. Banks take the money and just put it back to the Fed as excess reserves. It just sits there.

Looking ahead, we’re not going to get back to 2019 levels of output until early 2023 at the earliest. We’re probably not going to get back down to 2019 levels of unemployment until 2025. This reality will eventually catch up with the stock market."

"Government Must Print Trillions; Hyperinflation Unavoidable; Eviction Nightmare"

Jeremiah Babe,
"Government Must Print Trillions; Hyperinflation Unavoidable; 
Eviction Nightmare"

"The 'Hannibal Trap' Will Crush Global Wealth"

"The 'Hannibal Trap' Will Crush Global Wealth"
by Epic Economist

"Global wealth has been caught in an insidious trap and the next stock market crash is about to trigger the biggest wealth destruction ever recorded. That's what market expert and writer Egon von Greyerz has recently described. In this video, we are going to analyze his sharp insights and his latest assessment that signals how investors' wealth is doomed to collapse in such a catastrophic manner that resembles Hannibal's battle against the Romans in 217 BC. 

The global investment world is on the verge of being caught by the Hannibal trap. Around 218 BC Hannibal led his troops over the Alps and into Italy. Then he induced the Roman Consul Flaminius and his troops to follow him to Lake Trasimene in Umbria. The Romans followed him and his troops into a narrow valley on the northern shores of the lake. What Romans didn't know was that they were marching towards their own downfall. After they were inside the valley, all sides were blocked. The Carthaginians were ahead of them, the lake was on their right and hills on their left.

Hannibal had hidden part of his light cavalry and his army up in the hills. So when Romans were ambushed into the valley, they were trapped and attacked from both ends with nowhere to escape. So if you're wondering what Hannibal's battle got to do with investors' wealth in the present world, in the author's view, it seems quite evident that they're being led into a fatal trap without even being aware.

The health crisis was a fatal attack on an already impaired global economy. As we are getting closer to the end of an economic era in the world, at this stage, everything that can go wrong will. A widespread viral outbreak certainly fits that picture, since it could not have hit the world at a worse moment. The outbreak was like lighting a match and setting it next to a timebomb. In this case, the timebomb is the global financial system that at this moment is about to explode. 

Since the burst of the crisis, major retailers, several leading businesses in the leisure, travel, and airline industry have been closing by the day and most of them were shut down permanently. Across the globe, hundreds of thousands of small businesses have closed for good and left ravaging effects on their owners' finances. The destruction suffered so far makes the expert defend that the 21st-century economic depression is going to disrupt all levels of society. 

But it's at the very top of the global wealth pyramid that we have the biggest wealth trap in history. According to von Greyerz, there are about 2,200 billionaires in the world. Over the past three years, their capital has grown by a whopping 70% or $4.2 trillion. Their total wealth is now nearing $10.2t. However, the expert alerts that these billionaires could potentially lose at least 90% of their fortunes in the next 5 to 10 years, and not a single one of them is expecting this to happen or have been preparing for it. 

This staggering level of wealth accumulation is being supported by a very weak foundation of debt. In other words, the world hasn’t created any net wealth. Quite the opposite, wealth has just been inflated artificially through credit creation and money printing in the same scale. 

In his analysis, von Greyerz points out that one of the first steps to this tortuous downfall is the total debasement of the currency. Evidently, the path until this point won't be linear. As currencies go down, we will witness hyperinflation first. On top of that, there will be an implosive burst of both the debt bubble and the asset bubbles in stocks, bonds and property.

All of the largest companies in the world are extremely overvalued right now, as he points out these are "fantasy valuations". This is a consequence of governments' and central banks' adoption of money printing policies as a primary economic strategy. This money that is created out of thin air is the same that is used to support the stock market. Therefore, stocks are driven by liquidity, not real value investing. In short, this kind of debt-based liquidity is what has been driving up asset markets.

Now, we are set to a breakdown of extraordinary proportions, with a market correction that will slow down the profits run for years. And during a secular bear market, literally everyone is going to be a loser. Or as the strategist warned: Just like Hannibal slaughtered the Romans, the coming bear market is going to slaughter investors in an epic battle. Just wait and see."

Musical Interlude: Gnomusy (David Caballero), "Footprints On The Sea"

Gnomusy (David Caballero), "Footprints On The Sea"