Free Download: Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “Letters and Papers From Prison”

“The fact that the foolish person is often stubborn must not blind us to the fact that he is not independent. In conversation with him, one virtually feels that one is dealing not at all with him as a person, but with slogans, catchwords, and the like that have taken possession of him. He is under a spell, blinded, misused, and abused in his very being. Having thus become a mindless tool, the foolish person will also be capable of any evil and at the same time incapable of seeing that it is evil. This is where the danger of diabolical misuse lurks, for it is this that can once and for all destroy human beings. “

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Feb. 4, 1906 - April 9, 1945) was a Protestant Lutheran Pastor, theologian, and active in the German resistance to the policies of Hitler and Nazism. Due to his opposition to the Nazi regime, Bonhoeffer was arrested and executed at the Flossian concentration camp, during the last month of the war.

 - Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “Letters and Papers From Prison”

Freely download “Letters and Papers From Prison”, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

- https://ia801209.us.archive.org/29/

The Daily "Near You?"

Lalitpur, Nepal. Thanks for stopping by!

"Economic Market Snapshot AM 1/14/21"

"Economic Market Snapshot AM 1/14/21"

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"Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will

do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone."

- John Maynard Keynes

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"Down the rabbit hole of psychopathic greed and insanity...

Only the consequences are real - to you!

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Gregory Mannarino, PM 1/14/21:

"Grand Deception. The Fed: PRIME OBJECTIVE- 

CREATE A SLAVE SOCIETY DEPENDENT ON THEM"

- https://traderschoice.net/

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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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MarketWatch Market Summary, Live Updates

- https://www.marketwatch.com/tools/marketsummary

CNN Market Data:

- https://money.cnn.com/data/markets/

CNN Fear And Greed Index:

- https://money.cnn.com/data/fear-and-greed/

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A comprehensive, essential daily read.

- http://www.shadowstats.com/

Daily Updates, Jan 14th

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Daily Job Cuts

- https://www.dailyjobcuts.com/

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- https://www.zerohedge.com/

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- https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/

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- https://wallstreetonparade.com/

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- https://www.whatreallyhappened.com/

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- https://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/

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Commentary, highly recommended:

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

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And now, the End Game...

"Depressing Stimulus"

"Depressing Stimulus"

By Bill Bonner

WEST RIVER, MARYLAND – "Hold onto your hats. Today, the president-elect will give us a measure of the catastrophe ahead. From The New York Times: "Biden Set to Call for Big Spending on Stimulus and Vaccines". "President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Thursday is expected to outline proposals for trillions of dollars in government spending to combat the coronavirus pandemic and its effects on the economy, with an initial focus on large-scale expansions of the nation’s vaccination program and virus testing capacity."

Brainwashed: In a modern democracy, the role of the citizen, after an appropriate period in the public schools, is to believe six impossible things before breakfast… and another six after tea. Tesla is worth $800 billion. Sure it is. Joe Biden is going to make America freer and more prosperous than ever – Sure he is! And how will he do it? With more stimulus, of course. Fortunately, your editor slept through his Civics 101 class… and missed the important lavage du cerveau that is critical for our government.

And here’s Chuck Schumer with a familiar message. From Bloomberg: "Incoming Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has pressed President-elect Joe Biden to propose more than $1.3 trillion in spending for his initial round of Covid-19 relief, according to a person familiar with the matter."

Relief? Hold on. Let’s set the record straight. The feds have no “relief” available to them. They are bust… broke… penniless. They bake no bread to offer the hungry. They weave no wool to clothe the naked. And they drive no nails to house the homeless. All they can do is hand out more fake money. How much “relief” that will bring is the subject of today’s ramble.

Modern Miracle: Imagine two guys shipwrecked on an island. One collects berries. The other gathers nuts. They trade with each other, keeping track with the money supply that was in their pockets when they washed up. Along comes a passing cruise ship. Well-meaning tourists, seeing the two men in rags, toss them money – enough to double their money supply. (For reference, the U.S. money supply – M1 – rose 70% last year.) Surely that stimulated their island’s economy, no? Each had more money to spend. But what difference did it make? None. The additional money didn’t help them find more nuts or collect more berries.

But just as medieval ecclesiastic scholars could explain the miracle of turning water into wine, so, too, can modern Ph.D. economists, Joe Biden, newspaper columnists, and indeed, the average New York Times subscriber, explain the magic of turning “printing press” money into real wealth. “Stimulus,” they say. The word rolls off the tongue and slides off the page. It conjures up an image of a man having a cup of coffee… looking at dirty pictures… or… facing a firing squad.

It suggests that with the proper encouragement, he might alter his behavior. He might put more spring in his step. He might work harder. He might take more chances with his time and his money; he might become more productive.

Aggressive Stimulation: That’s the theory… pathetic as it is. And how does it work out? We’re not even going to mention Zimbabwe, Venezuela, or Argentina… you know the story already. Besides, we know what you’re thinking: Those are “sh*thole” countries, as Donald Trump famously phrased it. America is different, isn’t it?

But impossible is impossible, no matter where you try to do it. And printing-press money causes disaster everywhere. The U.S. began resorting to the printing press in a major way following the crisis of 2008-2009. Since then, the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet – a good measure of how much new money has been added – has grown from less than $900 billion to nearly $7.5 trillion. Never before had America “printed” so much or “stimulated” its economy so aggressively.

Lethargic Growth: And what happened? While the Fed added to the money supply at nearly 18% per year… real GDP – roughly measuring the exchange of goods and services in the U.S. economy – barely grew at a 1.3% annual rate. How did that compare to the previous 10 years?

Here’s the shocking thing. During those years, 1999 to 2008, the Fed “stimulated” at less than half the 2009-2020 rate… while the economy (as measured by GDP) grew twice as fast. In other words, “stimulus” made the U.S. economy more lethargic. Since the U.S. stepped up its stimulus efforts in 2008, the rate of wealth creation has been cut in half.So, Mr. Biden… More stimulus? Sure, why not."

- www.rogueeconomics.com

"WOAH! $2400 For SSI, SSDI; $2000 + $600 Stimulus Check Update! $3600 For Families"

Wise Flys, "WOAH! $2400 For SSI, SSDI;

$2000 + $600 Stimulus Check Update! $3600 For Families"

2nd & 3rd Stimulus Check Updates. 

Up To $3600 Per Family With Kids Under 17

SSI & SSDI Stimulus Update. $2400 SS Increase Update

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Helpful Numbers:
• United States Capitol Switchboard (Senators): 202-224-3121
• IRS- 800-919-9835 & 800-829-1040
• HUD- 202-708-1112
• USDA National Hunger Hotline- 866-348-6479
• Assistance In Your Community- 211
• National Suicide Prevention Lifeline- 800-273-8255

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"$10,000 STIMULUS CHECK, SECOND STIMULUS CHECK 

& Biden Third Stimulus Check Package | MORNINGS LALATE"

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"Social Security, SSDI, SSI & VA - 

Will You Get The $1,400 Stimulus Check?"

"In this video, Matt discusses a commonly asked question, will Social Security retirement, Social Security disability, Social Security Survivors, SSI, VA, and our RB beneficiaries get the next stimulus check? We continue to come back on a daily basis with your stimulus check update, second stimulus check update, third stimulus check update, stimulus package Update, Stimulus Bill Update, Stimulus Proposal a Update, and the latest on stimulus. There have been a lot of questions lately regarding if Social Security, SSDI, SSI, VA, and our RB beneficiaries will receive the next stimulus check. Matth answers that exact question in this video, please be sure to share this video with your friends, family, social media and subscribe if you are new here! The Blind To Billionaire channel is dedicated to helping you through this time and giving you daily updates with everything going on."

"Don't Think You Can Escape..."

“Reflect on what happens when a terrible winter blizzard strikes. You hear the weather warning but probably fail to act on it. The sky darkens. Then the storm hits with full fury, and the air is a howling whiteness. One by one, your links to the machine age break down. Electricity flickers out, cutting off the TV. Batteries fade, cutting off the radio. Phones go dead. Roads become impassible, and cars get stuck. Food supplies dwindle. Day to day vestiges of modern civilization – bank machines, mutual funds, mass retailers, computers, satellites, airplanes, governments – all recede into irrelevance.

Picture yourself and your loved ones in the midst of a howling blizzard that lasts several years. Think about what you would need, who could help you, and why your fate might matter to anybody other than yourself. That is how to plan for a saecular winter. Don’t think you can escape the Fourth Turning. History warns that a Crisis will reshape the basic social and economic environment that you now take for granted.” 

– Strauss & Howe, “The Fourth Turning”

Gregory Mannarino, "CRITICAL UPDATES: The Middle-Class WIPEOUT Just Kicked Into High Gear"

Gregory Mannarino, 

"CRITICAL UPDATES: 

The Middle-Class WIPEOUT Just Kicked Into High Gear"

- https://traderschoice.net/

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MarketWatch Market Summary, Live Updates

- https://www.marketwatch.com/tools/marketsummary

CNN Market Data:

- https://money.cnn.com/data/markets/

CNN Fear And Greed Index:

- https://money.cnn.com/data/fear-and-greed/

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JAN 14, 2021 - 8:35: "Initial Jobless Claims Soars To Highest Since August Amid Illinois Chaos" "Despite ongoing government-enforced lockdowns and small business closures, analysts expected the number of Americans seeking first-time unemployment benefits to remain flat in the first week of 2021 (even after ADP and BLS showed big job losses), but, they were "surprised" when initial claims exploded higher. 965k Americans filed for first time jobless claims in the first week of 2021 - a massive jump from last week's 784k and well above expectations of a 789k rise."

"How It Really Is"

 

Free Download: Aldous Huxley, “Brave New World"

“O, wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! 

How beauteous mankind is! 

O, brave new world, That has such people in't!”

- William Shakespeare, “The Tempest” (V, 1)

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“Till at last the child's mind is these suggestions, and the sum of the suggestions is the child's mind. And not the child's mind only. The adult's mind too - all his life long. The mind that judges and desires and decides - made up of these suggestions. But all these suggestions are our suggestions...” 

- “Brave New World: Suggestions from the State”

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Freely download “Brave New World", by Aldous Huxley here:

- https://fb2bookfree.com/uploads/files/

"Litany Against Fear"

"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. 

Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. 

I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. 

And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. 

Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. 

Only I will remain."

- Frank Herbert, 

"Dune", "Litany Against Fear"

Musical Interlude: Tom Clay, "What The World Needs Now"

"In this difficult day, in this difficult time for the United States, it is perhaps well to ask what kind of a nation we are and what direction we want to move in. You can be filled with bitterness, with hatred, and a desire for revenge. We can move in that direction as a country, in great polarization and filled with hatred toward one another. Or we can make an effort to understand and to comprehend, and to replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand with compassion and love. What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness; but love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or they be black." 

- Robert F. Kennedy on the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.

"What The World Needs Now"

by Tom Clay

"Detroit DJ brought this out early in 1973 and it was seen as 

a celebration of the message behind that spread

by John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy."

Must Watch! “Brace Yourself For The New Great Depression; U.S. Facing Income Crisis; Gold/Silver - You Need Them”

Jeremiah Babe,

“Brace Yourself For The New Great Depression; 

U.S. Facing Income Crisis; Gold/Silver - You Need Them”

Musical Interlude: Moby, "Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?"

Original: 

Moby, "Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?"

"He'll open doors..."

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Moby, "Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad (Ben-E.dit)"

Full screen highly recommended.

"A Look to the Heavens"

“M13 is one of the most prominent and best known globular clusters. Visible with binoculars in the constellation of Hercules, M13 is frequently one of the first objects found by curious sky gazers seeking celestials wonders beyond normal human vision. 

M13 is a colossal home to over 100,000 stars, spans over 150 light years across, lies over 20,000 light years distant, and is over 12 billion years old. At the 1974 dedication of Arecibo Observatory, a radio message about Earth was sent in the direction of M13. The featured image in HDR, taken through a small telescope, spans an angular size just larger than a full Moon, whereas the inset image, taken by Hubble Space Telescope, zooms in on the central 0.04 degrees.”

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap160727.html

"At This Point..."

“At this point I reveal myself in my true colors, as a stick-in-the-mud. I hold a number of beliefs that have been repudiated by the liveliest intellects of our time. I believe order is better than chaos, creation better than destruction. I prefer gentleness to violence, forgiveness to vendetta. On the whole I think that knowledge is preferable to ignorance, and I am sure that human sympathy is more valuable than ideology. I believe that in spite of the recent triumphs of science, men haven’t changed much in the last two thousand years; and in consequence we must try to learn from history. History is ourselves.

I believe in courtesy, the ritual by which we avoid hurting other people’s feelings, by satisfying our own egos. And I think we should remember that we are all part of a great whole, which for convenience we call nature. All living things are our brothers and sisters.”

- Kenneth Clark, “Civilization”

"What We Really Want..."

"Our dilemma is that we hate change and love it at the same time; 

what we really want is for things to remain the same but get better."

- Sydney J. Harris

"Here Comes the Pin"

"Here Comes the Pin"

by Brian Maher

"IT is drifting into view. Its outline is beginning to take shape... Yes, we can see it now, sharp and shiny - a pin - on a collision course with a bubble...The stock market bubble. What is propelling this pointy menace? When might it impact? Answers to follow. Let us first glance at the expanding blister it is bearing in on…

The day counted plus and minus - plus for the S&P and Nasdaq - minus for The Dow Jones. The S&P gained eight points. The Dow Jones lost eight points, washing away the S&P’s gain. But the Nasdaq tipped the board with a 56-point boost. And so there is somewhat more joy in heaven today. Gold, meantime, scratched out a gain of $3 and change. So much for today. Let us now train our vision on the approaching pin…

Euphoria: Citi’s “Panic/Euphoria” index has struck a record high. That is, market euphoria has struck a record high. Investors are dumbstruck and delirious, dizzied by trillions in Federal Reserve liquidity. Trees can indeed scrape the sky, growing under the nurturing influence of Jerome Powell’s hoses.

Dow 30,000? Why not. On to Dow 40,000. On to Dow 50,000. As a percentage of assets, investor equity holdings approach record heights. Meantime, our minions inform us these investors are buying up call options at record rates - that is, wagering on higher stock prices ahead. Pay no mind to today’s stratospheric valuations, they say. It is true, valuations approach those of the late 1990s — shortly before another pin found its mark.

The S&P’s price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio presently reads roughly 30... nearly double its historical average. hat is, history argues stocks are extravagant. But this time is different... shout the dumbstruck, delirious and dizzied...

Today’s ground-level interest rates justify today’s stratospheric valuations… and today’s skyscraping stock prices. Goldman - for example - claims stocks are no more expensive than 15 years ago. That is, stocks are no more expensive than in 2006. The bubble is a mirage, it concludes. Just so. But we would remind Goldman that a bubble was inflating in 2006. We would also remind Goldman that the market is not a study in mathematics. It cannot be captured in lines, bars or graphs.

The Elusive Markets: How do you represent fear on a chalkboard? Or greed? Markets are a study of psyches. Of emotions. And passions. They will not be reduced to numbers. As well attempt to reduce love to numbers... to translate Romeo and Juliet into a mathematics textbook... Or to plot a sonnet along an ‘x’ and ‘y’ axis... Or to express Nancy Pelosi’s hatred for Donald Trump through quadratic equations. It cannot be done.

Do you wish to comprehend markets? Look to the head, look to the heart, look to the glands. The head shrinker and the romance scribbler hold out far greater promise than the number cruncher. The head shrinker in particular has an easy diagnosis at present...

It’s Different This Time: Mr. Lance Roberts of Real Investment Advice: "One does not have to dig too deeply to find evidence of the “psychology” driving the current stock market bubble. Speak with almost any retail investor, and you will hear a common refrain from “the Fed won’t like markets decline” to common justification catch-phrases like the “Fear Of Missing Out (F.O.M.O)” or “There Is No Alternative (T.I.N.A.)”...

Concludes Roberts: "It is all reminiscent of the market peak of 1929 when Dr. Irving Fisher uttered his now-famous words: “Stocks have now reached a permanently high plateau.” This “time IS different.” However, “this time” is only different from the standpoint the variables are not the same as they have been previously. The variables never are. But the outcome is always the same. We must agree. The outcome is always the same. Only the variables differ.

So let us now turn to one variable that may “yield” the inevitable outcome - the bubble’s bursting. That is, let us identify the approaching pin…

Omens From the Bond Market: Today’s gorgeous stock prices are justified by low interest rates, say Wall Street’s drummers. They will remain justified so long as interest rates remain low. But have you glanced recently at the bond market?

10-year Treasury yields are on the jump. Below 0.90% in mid-December, yields have lurched to as of 1.18% yesterday. 1.18% is piddling by the standard of history. 10-year yields average 4.40% across time. But with markets - as with life - it is not so much where you are. It is where you are going. And yields are going up. That is largely because - we hazard - the bond market has caught a glimpse of approaching inflation... Not quantitative easing’s phantom inflation that only inflated stocks. But actual consumer price inflation.

The Kindling for an Inflationary Flame: The pandemic has turned out blizzards of spending… including the recent $900 billion “stimulus” package. The bond market spots additional spending ahead now that Democrats have seized all branches of government. The long-anticipated inflation may finally gurgle.

As we have explained prior, yields rise because inflation eats into a bond’s value as the termite eats into wood. Under inflation, a bond is a sawdust asset. Bond holders therefore demand a higher yield to compensate them for the termite’s ravages, for inflation’s ravages. Thus we have our pin: Rising interest rates.

Again, we are told today’s vanishingly small interest rates warrant today’s obscenely high stock levels. What then can you expect when interest rates rise? That is correct. You can expect stocks to plunge - at least you should expect stocks to plunge (we have cried false alarms before). But what is the interest rate that could topple the stock market? 3%... 2.5%... perhaps 2%? Recall, the 10-year Treasury presently yields 1.18%.

(How bad is the global debt problem? Holter says, “I’ll just give you just one number. Global debt is now $273 trillion. In the 2008-2009 debt crisis, global debt was about half that. (Most ominous of all are the, "best guess", $2.4 QUADRILLION in global derivatives. - CP) With that $273 trillion in debt, can interest rates ever go up? They cannot allow interest rates to ever go up. They can never taper balance sheets. They have to put their foot on the accelerator and push it through the floorboard to keep this thing alive. That debt has to be serviced.”")

When the Pin Strikes the Bubble: We turn to SocGen's Albert Edwards for the possible answer: "We all understood in 2018 (and we still know now) just how dependent this equity bull market is on low bond yields… But back then, with the S&P just shy of 3000 and much more moderate multiples than today it took a rise in 10y bond yields above 3% to ‘break’ the bull run. Now with the U.S. tech sector on a forward PE close to 30x (vs 20x back in Q4 2018), it will clearly take a lot less to break the equity market and trigger the bursting of this bubble."

What then is the bubble-popping figure? I don’t believe there is a cat in hell’s chance that... U.S. 10y yields can rise to 1.5%. The equity market bubble will burst long before we get there! 10-year Treasury yields are within range of 1.5%. That is, the stock market is presently within range of the prickly pin. When that pin strikes - if it strikes - we do not know. Again, we have yelled wolf before. But you may wish to keep a weather eye on 10-year Treasury yields..."

- dailyreckoning.com

Gregory Mannarino, "Bitcoin Going To 50K Shortly. Stock Market To SKYROCKET. Debt To HYPER-BALLOON"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 1/13/21:

"Bitcoin Going To 50K Shortly. 

Stock Market To SKYROCKET. Debt To HYPER-BALLOON"

- https://traderschoice.net/

The Daily "Near You?"

Mustang, Oklahoma, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

The Poet: Robert Frost, "Four Preludes on Playthings of the Wind"

"Four Preludes on Playthings of the Wind"

“The past is a bucket of ashes.”

1

The Woman named To-morrow

sits with a hairpin in her teeth

and takes her time

and does her hair the way she wants it

and fastens at last the last braid and coil

and puts the hairpin where it belongs

and turns and drawls: Well, what of it?

My grandmother, Yesterday, is gone.

What of it? Let the dead be dead.

2

The doors were cedar

and the panels strips of gold

and the girls were golden girls

and the panels read and the girls chanted:

We are the greatest city,

the greatest nation:

nothing like us ever was.

The doors are twisted on broken hinges.

Sheets of rain swish through on the wind

where the golden girls ran and the panels read:

We are the greatest city,

the greatest nation,

nothing like us ever was.

3

It has happened before.

Strong men put up a city and got

a nation together,

And paid singers to sing and women

to warble: We are the greatest city,

the greatest nation,

nothing like us ever was.

And while the singers sang

and the strong men listened

and paid the singers well

and felt good about it all,

there were rats and lizards who listened

… and the only listeners left now

… are … the rats … and the lizards.

And there are black crows

crying, “Caw, caw,”

bringing mud and sticks

building a nest

over the words carved

on the doors where the panels were cedar

and the strips on the panels were gold

and the golden girls came singing:

We are the greatest city,

the greatest nation:

nothing like us ever was.

The only singers now are crows crying, “Caw, caw,”

And the sheets of rain whine in the wind and doorways.

And the only listeners now are … the rats … and the lizards.

4

The feet of the rats

scribble on the door sills;

the hieroglyphs of the rat footprints

chatter the pedigrees of the rats

and babble of the blood

and gabble of the breed

of the grandfathers and the great-grandfathers

of the rats.

And the wind shifts

and the dust on a door sill shifts

and even the writing of the rat footprints

tells us nothing, nothing at all

about the greatest city, the greatest nation

where the strong men listened

and the women warbled: Nothing like us ever was.

- Robert Frost