2002, "Carol of the Bells"
So, we rise from the rubble...
Thursday, December 24, 2020
"And Tho'..."
“... and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”
- Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "Ulysses"
"2020 Year in Review"
"2020 Year in Review"
"Making sense of the craziest year we’ve yet lived through."
by Dave Collum
"Imagine, if you will, a man wakes up from a year-long induced coma - a long hauler of a higher order - to a world gone mad. During his slumber, the President of the United States was impeached for colluding with the Russians using a dossier prepared by his political opponents, themselves colluding with the FBI, intelligence agencies, and the Russians.
A pandemic that may have emanated from a Chinese virology laboratory swept the globe killing millions and is still on the loose. A controlled demolition of the global economy forced hundreds of millions into unemployment in a matter of weeks. Metropolitan hotels plummeted to 10% occupancy. The 10% of the global economy corresponding to hospitality and tourism had been smashed on the shoals and was foundering.
The Federal Reserve has been buying junk corporate bonds in total desperation. A social movement of monumental proportions swept the US and the world, triggering months of rioting and looting while mayors, frozen in the headlights, were unable to fathom an appropriate response.
The rise of neo-Marxism on college campuses and beyond had become palpable. The most contentious election in US history pitted the undeniably polarizing and irascible Donald Trump against the DNC A-Team including a 76-year-old showing early signs of dementia paired with a sassy neo-Marxist grifter with an undetectable moral compass. Many have lost faith in the fairness of the election as challenges hit the courts.
Peering through the virus-induced brain fog the man sees CNBC playing on the TV with the scrolling Chiron stating, “S&P up 12% year to date. Nasdaq soars 36%.” The man has entered The Twilight Zone."
Please view this lengthy, complete article here:
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"Every year, friend-of-the-site David Collum writes a detailed “Year in Review” synopsis full of keen perspective and plenty of wit. This year’s is no exception. As with past years, he has graciously selected PeakProsperity.com as the site where it will be published in full. It’s quite longer than our usual posts, but worth the time to read in full. A downloadable pdf of the full article is available here, for those who prefer to do their power-reading offline."
Gregory Mannarino, Noon 12/24/20: "Stocks Gain Again! With No Help For The American People In Sight"
Gregory Mannarino, Noon 12/24/20:
"Stocks Gain Again! With No Help For The American People In Sight"
Musical Interlude: 2002, "Dreams Of Peace"
2002, "Dreams Of Peace"
Full screen mode highly recommended.
"In A Word..."
"In a word, there are many thorns, but the roses are there too. "
- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
"Economic Market Snapshot AM 12/24/20"
"Market Fantasy Updates AM 12/24/20"
"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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"Economic Market Snapshot AM 12/24/20"
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Gregory Mannarino, AM 12/24/20:
"Important Updates: Stocks, Stimulus,
Bitcoin, Ripple, Debt, Dollar, MORE!"
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MarketWatch Market Summary, Live Updates
CNN Market Data:
CNN Fear And Greed Index:
Daily Job Cuts
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And now, the End Game...
"I Had COVID For 17 Days, Here’s What It Was Like" (Excerpt)
"I Had COVID For 17 Days,
Here’s What It Was Like" (Excerpt)
by Daisy Luther
"A lot of folks are out there saying that COVID is a myth, that viruses don’t exist (wth?), or that the whole pandemic has been a scam. While I strongly disagree with the lockdowns and restrictions on our ability to make a living, there truly is a pretty bad virus out there. And I know this from personal experience.
I had Covid and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. It was brutal and I had what would be considered a “moderate” case. This article isn’t meant to be used as medical advice or political fodder. This isn’t a treatise about a magical cure being kept secret by Big Pharma nor is it about the Deep State, some villain who cooked up a bioweapon, or any other theory du jour. My medical and treatment choices may be different than yours. I’m simply relating my experiences.
This virus hits people very differently. If you were fortunate enough to have a mild case, don’t disregard your next door neighbor who ends up with permanent organ damage. Some people are asymptomatic, some have minor symptoms, some are moderately ill, and some die. This is definitely not “just the flu” for many people. I never had a case of influenza that took me down like this, particularly not for this length of time."
Please view this complete article here:
"Be Ready For Banking And Commercial Real Estate Collapse In America!"
"Be Ready For Banking And
Commercial Real Estate Collapse In America!"
by Epic Economist
"This year, the standards to what was once considered "normal" have been constantly disrupted and reshaped. But for some sectors of our economy, the greatest trouble hasn't even started yet. That's the struggle thousands of U.S. commercial real estate owners are about to face early next year. In 2020, property owners have seen their buildings shut down during several rounds of restrictions, leaving many of their tenants unable to afford their back rent and making the whole sector question the practicality of its own operations. As the remote work trend gains force, and travel and tourism continue to be impaired by the fallout of the health crisis, in addition to the progressive bankruptcy of retailers, restaurants, and hotels, commercial real state space has been sitting empty, while, on the other hand, mortgage-based securities keep falling into delinquency.
The latest evaluations of the sector are leading strategists to worry about the enormous financial distress these owners will have to cope with over the next months, which could potentially result in a catastrophic banking crisis, considering their credit is already compromised and the economic outlook doesn't look promising enough for owners to regain their ability to pay off their debt. But so far, the commercial real estate market hasn’t really had a reckoning. However, experts warn that this is set for a change. That's what we are going to investigate in this video.
All across the country, offices, restaurants, gyms, stores, and hotel rooms are getting increasingly vacant due to the new round of lockdowns. The sanitary outbreak has prompted a major relocation of the masses, driving people to fly away from metropolitan areas seeking more affordable housing and a scape from the mounting social turbulence we all have been witnessing over the course of the year. Cities are being hollowed out due to the shift to remote working, the preference for online shopping, and the obstacles surrounding business and touristic traveling. That has caused a huge shock to commercial properties of almost all descriptions.
The imminent threat of bankruptcies and defaults has already led banks to tighten credit and lending, which means, commercial borrowers are likely to face even bigger hardships to access the loans and refinance their debt to weather the coming storm. Recent Federal Reserve data suggests that the overall stakes have never been higher. Nationwide, commercial property debt skyrocketed to a record-high of $3.06 trillion in the third quarter from a 10-year low of $2.2 trillion in 2012. In some states, such as New York, the situation is way more complicated. With approximately $1.1 billion worth of property loans now considered distressed in Times Square, the latest property evaluation indicated that the value of properties has been slashed by 80% to about $92.5 million.
The Big Apple’s overbuilt hotel industry has a large excedent of vacant rooms, with four out of five properties backed by hotel mortgage bonds now presenting signs of strain. But hotels aren't the only ones in deep trouble. The retail apocalypse has provoked a major crunch in commercial real estate, and since a considerable amount of those stores were permanently closed, that will create a glut of retail space in a country that already had too much of it.
Up until now, the owners of two sizable portfolios of over 130 shopping malls have filed for bankruptcy after a series of stores and restaurants either shut down their activities or lost their means to pay their rent. Multiple leading companies are announcing an inevitable shift to remote working. In short, office owners in many high-cost areas are going to have to get used to higher vacancy rates, since things won't probably ever come back to "normal".
As we enter the darkest stage of the economic meltdown for multiple business sectors, the losses suffered have the potential to ripple far beyond building owners and their tenants. Considering commercial property upholds the tax base in several cities across the nation, a collapse in the real estate market will not only cause a banking crisis, as it will strike local budgets. In other words, this will be translated into much more economic challenges ahead, and possibly the extension of this never-ending recession that doesn’t cease to impair our life prospects and jeopardize our standards of living. America is doomed to an ominous future and we are all going down with it."
Wednesday, December 23, 2020
Christmas Musical Interlude: Placido Domingo, "La Virgen Lava Pañales"; "Ave Maria"
Placido Domingo, "La Virgen Lava Pañales"
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Plácido Domingo, Wiener Sängerknaben,
"Ave Maria" (Franz Schubert)
"Stimulus Ripoff; Economic Reckoning; Financial Time Bomb; Economy On Life Support; You're Blessed"
Jeremiah Babe,
"Stimulus Ripoff; Economic Reckoning;
Financial Time Bomb; Economy On Life Support; You're Blessed"
"Trump: It’s a 'Disgrace!'”
"Trump: It’s a 'Disgrace!'”
by Brian Maher
"A spending bill has passed the chambers of Congress - upper and lower, Senate and House - by runaway majorities. By the deal’s terms, total 2021 spending would run to $2.4 trillion. It would rate the second-largest spending bill in the annals of the United States. This behemoth runs to 5,593 pages. The St. James Bible, meantime, goes to 1,200. That is, God can tell the world’s story in 1,200 pages, all of it, alpha through omega.
Yet the government of the United States requires 5,593 pages to blueprint one year of spending. The print is not large… incidentally.
House rules allot each congressman 72 hours to look it through — three days. How many congressmen have suffered through the 5,593-page eye-glazer... page one... through page 5,593? Or pages one through two? We wonder.
Pork, Pork and More Pork: Pandemic “relief” totals $900 billion of the $2.4 trillion package. Most Americans would receive only $600 if equally rationed - for a total of $198 billion. Who collars the rest? The Economic Policy Journal (EPJ) has run the tally:
There's $5 billion in military aid to Israel.
Here is aid other countries are getting for various projects:
• Egypt = $1,300,000,000
• Sudan = $700,000,000
• Ukraine = $453,000,000
• Israel = $500,000,000
• Burma = $135,000,000
• Nepal = $130,000,000
• Cambodia = $85,500,000
Unlisted is the $15 million Sri Lanka would receive to repair a vessel... Or the $505 million Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama would receive to “address key factors that contribute to the migration of unaccompanied, undocumented minors to the U.S.”
We believe we could save the United States government $505 million. We can penetrate the $505 million mystery. Unaccompanied, undocumented minors migrate to the United States to break free of poverty. Perhaps, in certain cases, to accept gratefully the generosity of the United States taxpayer. But there is more…
Something for Everyone: Continues the EPJ:
• There's $1.4 billion for "Asia Reassurance Initiative Act"
• The bill will establish a new Smithsonian American Women's History Museum and a Smithsonian National Museum of the American Latino.
• The bill creates a commission tasked with educating “consumers about the dangers associated with using or storing portable fuel containers for flammable liquids near an open flame."
• Representative Thomas Massie reports that $10 million is designated for gender programs in Pakistan.
• The bill mandates new hiring measures to ensure diversity in the intelligence community.
• The bill decriminalizes unauthorized use of the Swiss Coat of Arms or Smokey the Bear.
• The bill spends five pages laying out the process for determining who will be recognized as the next reincarnation of the Dalia Lama.
• The bill outlays funds to address gender inequality amongst statues.
• The Covid relief bill stipulates funds can’t be used for accessing pornographic websites unless it’s “official business.”
“Vocal Bipartisan Support”: A personal note: We are pleased beyond description that the United States government is at last tackling gender inequality among statues. We were aghast this past summer - not one lone female statue was hauled down in anger. We are also heart and soul for gender equality in Pakistan. $10 million is dreadfully inadequate to the crying need.
Meantime, $35 billion would fund wind, solar and other “clean energy” initiatives under this legislation. That is because these energies require subsidies. Most are not otherwise profitable.
We learn by The New York Times that these give outs received “vocal bipartisan support, with senior senators from both parties hailing the breakthrough as overdue and key to creating jobs of the future.” Just so. Yet what about the jobs of the present? The bill extends little relief to drinking houses, eateries and other small businesses currently trembling under lockdown. Will a $600 cheque see the jobless waiter through the winter? Or the idle barkeep? We hazard it will not. Ah, but a sunray cracks through the gloom…
Trump to the Rescue: The tribune of the plebs - President Trump himself - has taken to the Forum Americanum, pleading the people’s case. $600 is a “disgrace,” he thunders. Cut away the pork and feed it to the American people. Give them $2,000 each. $4,000 for married couples, argues the President of the United States: "I am asking Congress to amend this bill and increase the ridiculously low $600 to $2,000, or $4,000 for a couple… get rid of the wasteful and unnecessary items from this legislation and to send me a suitable bill."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is with him this one time: "At last, the President has agreed to $2,000 - Democrats are ready to bring this to the Floor this week by unanimous consent. Let’s do it!" Here is our question: Has the president at last agreed to $2,000… or have Democrats at last agreed to $2,000?
Election Year Politics: There are the politics to consider. A man receiving a $2,000 cheque bearing the signature of Donald J. Trump might feel tender towards Donald J. Trump. Might he even yank a lever for Donald J. Trump in an election booth? We must admit it is possible, yes. Would Democrats allow that possibility prior to November 3? We are not convinced they would. Yet now that the fellow is (ostensibly) out… let the Treasury doors swing wide open. Let the $2,000 cheques go out.
And so Signore Machiavelli glances upward from his fiery cauldron… admiringly. We speculate, admittedly. Perhaps we are too far gone in cynicism. Perhaps all hearts are pure. It is better to be occasionally fooled than perpetually suspicious, as someone said once. Regardless…The federal government would “shut down” December 29 should the President fail to sign a bill.
Why Stop at $2,000? But why stop at $2,000 cheques? Why not $5,000… $10,000… $100,000? The nation floats along in $27.5 trillion of red ink. It is unlikely a few trillion more will drag it under. Hand-wringers have yelled wolf about the national debt for years and years… At $5 trillion. $10 trillion. $15 trillion. $20 trillion. $25 trillion. Now an impossible $27.5 trillion.
Yet the show runs on. Where is the cataclysm? You say there is a limit. You say the straw will snap the camel’s spine. But which straw? The 29th trillion? The 32nd trillion? The 41st trillion?
We request a square answer.
The Greatest Show on Earth: Do not remind us that we have likewise yelled wolf about the national debt for years and years. Or that we have failed to identify the fatal straw. We will not listen! We prefer to delight in the spectacle of it all - delighting in the bread, delighting in the circuses, paraded out daily in half a dozen rings.
Is there another country on Earth that offers comparable entertainment? We have yet to discover one. We have searched. Is it responsible to pile up $27.5 trillion of debt? Perhaps it is not. Will the circus tent one day collapse? Well, maybe it will. But this you must admit: What a show while it runs..."
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DEC 23, 2020 - 20:20: "Back To Square One: GOP To Block Pelosi Bid For $2,000 Checks, Will Offer CR Separating State From Foreign Aid"
Yeah, it's a disgrace alright...
"A Look to the Heavens"
"Large galaxies and faint nebulae highlight this deep image of the M81 Group of galaxies. First and foremost in the wide-angle 12-hour exposure is the grand design spiral galaxy M81, the largest galaxy visible in the image. M81 is gravitationally interacting with M82 just below it, a big galaxy with an unusual halo of filamentary red-glowing gas.
Around the image many other galaxies from the M81 Group of galaxies can be seen. Together with other galaxy congregates including our Local Group of galaxies and the Virgo Cluster of galaxies, the M81 Group is part of the expansive Virgo Supercluster of Galaxies. This whole galaxy menagerie is seen through the faint glow of an Integrated Flux Nebula, a little studied complex of diffuse gas and dust clouds in our Milky Way Galaxy."
"Doug Casey on the Calls for Fed to Address Inequality, Climate Change, and More..."
"Doug Casey on the Calls for Fed to Address Inequality,
Climate Change, and More..."
by International Man
"International Man: Recently, the calls for the Fed to add a third mandate to address racial and economic inequality have grown louder. Will we see a redistribution of wealth soon?
Doug Casey: It seems the movement towards black "reparations" is building momentum. These things always start small, testing the water, then grow when nobody either laughs at them for being stupid or decries them as evil. Most Americans are now too intimidated and confused to do that, however.
It's similar to MMT. A year ago, the notion of Modern Monetary Theory was too outrageous a notion for a sensible person to bother considering; now, it's practically public policy. And, incidentally, when I say "black," I don't capitalize the word, as very recent politically correct fashion dictates. Capitalizing it just emphasizes and accentuates racial differences - as do most "woke" practices.
It's another sign of the mass insanity that's sweeping the world. Like almost everybody wearing masks when walking down the street, or even bicycling in the countryside. Not to mention locking down the whole country, practically the entire world, like a prison. It's quite ironic to me. In the past, I've often joked that the Earth was a prison planet. Now it's no joke.
Anyway, the idea of reparations is even more insane, but it's taking off. It's the destructive, racist idea of affirmative action on steroids. It's one genuinely crazy thing after another, like NASDAQ requiring listed companies to have at least two board members of so-called minority groups, including one non-white person and one with a sexual aberration.
Movies are expected to have the same kind of composition now. You see it to a large degree in commercials on TV. When I watch the boob-tube, I feel like I'm the only straight white male left in the US. The discrimination against Asians is equally criminal, especially when it comes to getting into college. If you're a smart and hard-working Asian, you now have to be even smarter and harder working to compete.
These PC fools are making accidents of birth into defining features of existence. The only good thing about the trend is that these people may be overreaching and will self-destruct. Hopefully, that will happen before they destroy society itself.
International Man: Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has spoken in length about the Fed's interest to address economic inequality. Ironically, the one institution that is single-handedly responsible for destructive monetary policies and money printing of epic proportions plans to do more of the same to "solve" the very problem they created. What are your thoughts on this?
Doug Casey: The Fed is one of the main creators of inequality. The Establishment, the Deep State types, and the other cronies who hang around the government are closest to the fire hydrant of money spewing from the Fed. They get their fill of it before any trickles down to the "little people."
The solution to the problem is to abolish the Fed. But it's so entrenched and so central to the corrupt system, that's impossible. At least short of a monetary collapse - although a monetary collapse is in the cards. But, at a minimum, the Fed shouldn't try to act as a social engineer. It certainly shouldn't give money to blacks just because they're black in the form of reparations or for any other reason. The notion is criminally stupid. All exchange must be mutual and free. If it's not, it breeds resentment for both the giver and the receiver.
Free stuff, like welfare and free government housing, has already destroyed black families and black individuals. Places like Cabrini-Green and Pruitt-Igoe are monuments to government planning. If the Fed gets involved in passing out more free money, it's only going to cement the average black more solidly to the bottom of society and create more race antagonism.
Well-positioned blacks like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Maxine Waters, and hundreds of others who are getting rich by virtue of being black are all for it, of course. There's big money in disguising race-baiting as virtue signaling.
International Man: Recently, Joe Biden announced that he would nominate former Fed Chairman Janet Yellen for US Treasury Secretary. In her first remarks, Yellen spoke about her plans to address racial disparities and inequality. Is there a trend developing here where racial and economic inequality has become the justification for dangerous monetary policies?
Doug Casey: Race has become a justification for practically everything today. Deep State types in general, and the Democrats in particular, emphasize race and gender differences, which does nothing but aggravate the situation.
This nomination is an excellent deal for Yellen, who's moved from being a nothing nobody academic to Fed Chair, and now Treasury Secretary. By the time she finishes her term in office, she'll be a centimillionaire - the usual drill, six-figure speeches, seven-figure book contracts, fat directors fees, consulting fees, and insider investment deals. She'll do well for someone who has zero business experience and has detracted hugely from the world's real wealth. She's a model for the kind of people who want to go into government to become rich and famous.
International Man: Fed chairman Powell has made countless remarks about the need for the US central bank to address climate change. What is going on here?
Doug Casey: It's a good question. How can they address the so-called problem of climate change? Climate change has been going on since the Earth came together 4.5 billion years ago, and it will continue on its own path, primarily influenced by the sun and secondarily by things like volcanism, cosmic rays, and peculiarities of the planets orbit, long after mankind has gone.
But destroying the economy by printing up more money certainly isn't an answer to climate change. However, I'm sure that what's on Powell's mind is making money easier to get for things like windmills and solar panels. This is more state direction of investment. It was a disaster for the USSR and every other socialist and state-directed economy and will be for us as well.
You'll notice that the Chinese and other Asian economies don't indulge in this kind of politically correct investing. It's a major reason why they're on the way up, and we're on the way down. Janet and Jerome's excellent adventure in climate engineering won't end well.
International Man: With climate change and racial inequality, the Fed is creating all sorts of new ridiculous pretexts to justify whatever it wants to do. It would be comical if the consequences weren't so destructive. What do you think comes next?
Doug Casey: At this point, the Federal Reserve, which most Americans barely even know exists, has become extremely important to everybody. It's now the main source of government income - greater even than the income tax - and this is likely to continue. Agencies like the Fed grow when they have unlimited funding. But it's more than just mission creep at this point.
We saw mission creep during the Vietnam war and all other wars. Now the Fed has been enlisted to fight the war on poverty, the war on racism, and global warming. The problem is that war is the health of the State - but a catastrophe for society.
The Fed started out as essentially a clearinghouse for banks; it was instructed to maintain the value of the currency. It has totally failed at that mission since its creation. The US dollar was stable from 1789 up until 1913 when the Fed was instituted. Since then, the dollar lost has about 97% of its value, and the degeneration is radically accelerating.
Now the Fed is supposed to ensure full employment, racial and gender equality, and sunny days in addition. The next abomination will be Fed Coin, a digital dollar, which will eliminate all privacy from financial transactions. There's no question the elite are eager to promote policies like negative interest rates, the abolition of cash and more.
I don't think anything can turn the situation around at this point. The only thing you can do is become as wealthy as possible to insulate yourself. The next step will be something resembling World War III, probably with China. The US will turn into a police state, which in many ways, it was during World Wars I and II. It's going to be much more serious this time around."
Chet Raymo, "It"
"It"
by Chet Raymo
"A Howard Nemerov poem might be twelve pages long or twelve words long. He was equally adept at the epic and the aphorism. He could be serious or fun. Sometimes both at the same time. Consider the following poem, called "A Life," which I quote in its entirety. (How does "fair use" apply to something so short?)
"Innocence?
In a sense.
In no sense!
Was that it?
Was that it?
Was that it?
That was it."
Now I hear my spouse's voice whispering in my ear: 'What's all this musing about death lately? Why all this late-life pessimism? Your blog is becoming morbid.' Morbid? Not really. I don't yet feel the Grim Reaper's cold breath on my neck. But surely it's that time of life to begin a summing up. I don't want to expire mid-sentence, with an unfinished thought...
So, was it innocent? In a sin? In a sense. Not Original Sin, perhaps, but plenty of my own devising. No sin? Nonsense.
It. What?
That. Why?
Was. When?
A matter of emphasis. In phases. In phrases. That was it. That was it. That was it. Wasn't it?”
"It Was Ironic..."
"It was the essence of life to disbelieve in death for one's self, to act as if life would continue forever. And life had to act also as if little issues were big ones. To take a realistic attitude toward life and death meant that one lapsed into unreality. Into insanity. It was ironic that the only way to keep one's sanity was to ignore that one was in an insane world or to act as if the world were sane."
- Philip José Farmer
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