Gregory Mannarino, PM 4/4/21:
"Markets, A Look Ahead: "We Have Their Playbook."
So, we rise from the rubble...
Sunday, April 4, 2021
"What Are You Willing To Live For?"
"What Are You Willing To Live For?"
by Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu, Ed.D
"Have you ever asked yourself the question, “What am I willing to die for?” It expresses the will to do something so extremely that one is willing to die doing it. This is a beautiful way of showing the spirit that will enable one to persevere to the very end in accomplishing something. It resonates with bushido, and overcoming the fear of death through complete service. There are even times that people feel the need to sacrifice their lives for a cause.
But there is also a problem with this way of thinking. The inevitable end is death. There is sacrifice. People become martyrs. And their work in this world ends. For some people, this may be a good ending, dying for a cause. They might think, “We’re going to die anyway, so why not die for something good.”
But most of us choose to not die for something. We live, although our state of living may be half alive, half dead, half awake, half asleep, never fully engaged in a meaningful, purposeful, fulfilling life. We live in apathy, cynicism, and callousness in how we treat ourselves and others.
How can we get to a way of living in which we are caring, gentle, and fully alive? What if we asked, “What am I willing to live for?” What means so much to me that I could consciously, intentionally, and mindfully choose to live for it? What might that be for you? For some people, lost in despair and hopelessness, this may be an elusive idea. My father, plagued by alcoholism, depression, and suicidal thoughts, told me that when he asked himself that question, the clear answer was that he wanted to live for his children.
In the film "Letters from Iwo Jima", we see how humans face this question in the most desperate circumstances. As the enemy forces overwhelm their defenses and the Japanese general contemplates his impending ritual suicide, he reflects on living and dying.
"It’s strange. Though I swore to fight here till the end for my family,there’s another me that hesitates to die because of my family." Facing imminent death, the soldier realizes that what he was willing to die for is what he now wants to live for. There is tragedy in this destructive way of living that asks us, “What are you willing to die for?” But knowing this can help us realize what we are willing to live for. For some people, like the general, this realization comes late in life when we have little time left. If we are fortunate to have more time, we can transform our passion into a way of being that is constructive and gentle.
If we ask ourselves, “What am I willing to live for?” What would our answer be? We may discover that we truly have reason to live. It may help us to know what to do with our precious lives now, and would want to do tomorrow, if we are given another day.
Reflection: Ask yourself, “What am I willing to live for?” If this is too intimidating and difficult to answer, try to focus on what’s around you, what’s right in front of you. Think local, of something in your grasp, something possible. Think real, something realistic that needs to be done and you have the ability to do. Think small, it doesn’t matter how small the thing is. Make it simple by asking, “What am I willing to live for today, now?” “What needs to be done today, that if I don’t do it, it won’t get done?”
"Brutal" Abuse Of Power: Watch As UK Police
Break Up "Unlawful Gathering" Easter Service In London"
by Tyler Durden
"Shocking footage has emerged showing the absurd lengths authorities are willing to go to enforce 'Covid rules' even after vaccines have been made more widely available, with tens of millions having received the jab.
UK police invaded a church in southwest London during a Good Friday service and shut it down because "too many people" were in attendance. Local reports identified that clergy and congregants at Christ the King Roman Catholic Church in Balham, at what's a predominantly Polish neighborhood church, were threatened with a fine equivalent to multiple hundreds of dollars, or possible arrest if they didn't leave.
The police appeared to literally burst in mid-service and acknowledged it was among the most important Christian holy days of the year before ordering people to disperse. "I appreciate that it is Good Friday, and you’d like to worship, but this gathering is unlawful," an officer is heard announcing. The church is accusing Metropolitan police of "brutally exceeding their powers":
A message posted on the church's website on Saturday says: "On Good Friday, 2 April 2021, during the Liturgy of the Lord's Passion, at the time of the Adoration of the Cross, the police arrived at the door of our church at around 6pm. We were not allowed to finish the celebration. The police officers found our liturgical assembly illegal, ordering everyone to leave our temple immediately or face a £200 fine for each parishioner present, or even arrest. The faithful obeyed this order without objection. We believe, however, that the police brutally exceeded their powers by issuing their warrant for no good reason, as all government requirements were met." The full video showed multiple officers disrespectfully milling about the altar area and sanctuary while threatening church-goers with arrest.
The past year has witnessed similar scenes in other churches and religious communities. It's further no doubt sent UK churches and Christian communities on edge over the potential "breaking of Covid rules" as people exercise freedom of worship.
Metropolitan Police in addressing the Good Friday incident in Balham seemed to suggest there will be more such crackdowns to come: "This was one of a series of numerous events taking place at the church over the Easter period. We are engaging with church authorities today and will continue to do so in the coming days," a police statement said.
Describing the incident, the Metropolitan Police said, "At around 1700hrs on Friday, 2 April, officers were called to a report of crowds of people queuing outside a church in Balham High Road. Officers attended and found a large number of people inside the church. Some people were not wearing masks and those present were clearly not socially distanced." They expressed "concern" for transmission of the virus, despite the United Kingdom this past week making headlines for the positive development that it recently witnessed its second day in 2021 of zero reported deaths from COVID-19.
The incident unleashed a storm of anger online; however, headed into the first busy Easter weekend where in many places across Europe and the United States lockdowns have been relaxed, and people are eager to get back to "normal" - which includes being able to practice their faith in peace - there's likely to be more confrontations with police and "Covid enforcers" to come."
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How much more of this disgraceful insanity will you take, folks?
"First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out -
because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out -
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out -
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me -
and there was no one left to speak for me."
- Martin Niemöller
You'd better decide, before you're forced to,
before they come for you, when you will finally say,
"No! No more!"
"Polish Pastor Chases Cops Out of Church on
Easter Weekend: ‘Get Out! You Nazis!’"
"A Polish pastor at a church in Canada went viral after his blunt response to cops showing up at his church on Easter weekend, presumably to crack down on Covid restrictions. The pastor, Artur Pawlowski, yelled at the police to "get out" and told them not to come back to Cave of Adullam Church unless they have a warrant. “Police came to disrupt Church gathering! Gestapo came again to intimidate the Church parishioners during the Passover Celebration!!! Unbelievable.”
"In The End..."
"What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end,
of little consequence. The only consequence is what we do."
- John Ruskin
"Are We Living In A 'Matrix'-like Superhologram?"
"Are We Living In A 'Matrix'-like Superhologram?"
by David Talbot
"In 1982 a remarkable event took place. At the University of Paris a research team led by physicist Alain Aspect performed what may turn out to be one of the most important experiments of the 20th century. You did not hear about it on the evening news. In fact, unless you are in the habit of reading scientific journals you probably have never even heard Aspect's name, though there are some who believe his discovery may change the face of science. Aspect and his team discovered that under certain circumstances subatomic particles such as electrons are able to instantaneously communicate with each other regardless of the distance separating them. It doesn't matter whether they are 10 feet or 10 billion miles apart. Somehow each particle always seems to know what the other is doing. The problem with this feat is that it violates Einstein's long-held tenet that no communication can travel faster than the speed of light. Since traveling faster than the speed of light is tantamount to breaking the time barrier, this daunting prospect has caused some physicists to try to come up with elaborate ways to explain away Aspect's findings. But it has inspired others to offer even more radical explanations.
University of London physicist David Bohm, for example, believes Aspect's findings imply that objective reality does not exist, that despite its apparent solidity the universe is at heart a phantasm, a gigantic and splendidly detailed hologram. To understand why Bohm makes this startling assertion, one must first understand a little about holograms. A hologram is a three- dimensional photograph made with the aid of a laser. To make a hologram, the object to be photographed is first bathed in the light of a laser beam. Then a second laser beam is bounced off the reflected light of the first and the resulting interference pattern (the area where the two laser beams commingle) is captured on film. When the film is developed, it looks like a meaningless swirl of light and dark lines. But as soon as the developed film is illuminated by another laser beam, a three-dimensional image of the original object appears.
The three-dimensionality of such images is not the only remarkable characteristic of holograms. If a hologram of a rose is cut in half and then illuminated by a laser, each half will still be found to contain the entire image of the rose. Indeed, even if the halves are divided again, each snippet of film will always be found to contain a smaller but intact version of the original image. Unlike normal photographs, every part of a hologram contains all the information possessed by the whole. The "whole in every part" nature of a hologram provides us with an entirely new way of understanding organization and order. For most of its history, Western science has labored under the bias that the best way to understand a physical phenomenon, whether a frog or an atom, is to dissect it and study its respective parts. A hologram teaches us that some things in the universe may not lend themselves to this approach. If we try to take apart something constructed holographically, we will not get the pieces of which it is made, we will only get smaller wholes. This insight suggested to Bohm another way of understanding Aspect's discovery. Bohm believes the reason subatomic particles are able to remain in contact with one another regardless of the distance separating them is not because they are sending some sort of mysterious signal back and forth, but because their separateness is an illusion. He argues that at some deeper level of reality such particles are not individual entities, but are actually extensions of the same fundamental something.
To enable people to better visualize what he means, Bohm offers the following illustration. Imagine an aquarium containing a fish. Imagine also that you are unable to see the aquarium directly and your knowledge about it and what it contains comes from two television cameras, one directed at the aquarium's front and the other directed at its side. As you stare at the two television monitors, you might assume that the fish on each of the screens are separate entities. After all, because the cameras are set at different angles, each of the images will be slightly different. But as you continue to watch the two fish, you will eventually become aware that there is a certain relationship between them. When one turns, the other also makes a slightly different but corresponding turn; when one faces the front, the other always faces toward the side. If you remain unaware of the full scope of the situation, you might even conclude that the fish must be instantaneously communicating with one another, but this is clearly not the case.
This, says Bohm, is precisely what is going on between the subatomic particles in Aspect's experiment. According to Bohm, the apparent faster-than-light connection between subatomic particles is really telling us that there is a deeper level of reality we are not privy to, a more complex dimension beyond our own that is analogous to the aquarium. And, he adds, we view objects such as subatomic particles as separate from one another because we are seeing only a portion of their reality. Such particles are not separate "parts", but facets of a deeper and more underlying unity that is ultimately as holographic and indivisible as the previously mentioned rose. And since everything in physical reality is comprised of these "eidolons", the universe is itself a projection, a hologram.
In addition to its phantomlike nature, such a universe would possess other rather startling features. If the apparent separateness of subatomic particles is illusory, it means that at a deeper level of reality all things in the universe are infinitely interconnected.The electrons in a carbon atom in the human brain are connected to the subatomic particles that comprise every salmon that swims, every heart that beats, and every star that shimmers in the sky. Everything interpenetrates everything, and although human nature may seek to categorize and pigeonhole and subdivide, the various phenomena of the universe, all apportionments are of necessity artificial and all of nature is ultimately a seamless web.
In a holographic universe, even time and space could no longer be viewed as fundamentals. Because concepts such as location break down in a universe in which nothing is truly separate from anything else, time and three-dimensional space, like the images of the fish on the TV monitors, would also have to be viewed as projections of this deeper order. At its deeper level reality is a sort of superhologram in which the past, present, and future all exist simultaneously. This suggests that given the proper tools it might even be possible to someday reach into the superholographic level of reality and pluck out scenes from the long-forgotten past.
What else the superhologram contains is an open-ended question. Allowing, for the sake of argument, that the superhologram is the matrix that has given birth to everything in our universe, at the very least it contains every subatomic particle that has been or will be - every configuration of matter and energy that is possible, from snowflakes to quasars, from blue whales to gamma rays. It must be seen as a sort of cosmic storehouse of "All That Is." Although Bohm concedes that we have no way of knowing what else might lie hidden in the superhologram, he does venture to say that we have no reason to assume it does not contain more. Or, perhaps the superholographic level of reality is a "mere stage" beyond which lies "an infinity of further development."
"The Only Cure..."
"We're all susceptible to it, the dread and anxiety of not knowing what's coming. It's pointless in the end, because all the worrying and the making of plans for things that could or could not happen, it only makes things worse. So walk your dog or take a nap. Just whatever you do, stop worrying. Because the only cure for paranoia is to be here, just as you are."
- Dr. Meredith Grey, "Grey's Anatomy"
Graphic: "Anxiety", Edward Munch, 1894
"Brace Your Self For A Catastrophic Housing Crash: Bubble Explodes & Inventory Fall Like Never Before"
Full screen recommended.
"Brace Your Self For A Catastrophic Housing Crash:
Bubble Explodes & Inventory Fall Like Never Before"
by Epic Economist
"The meteoric rise in home prices continues to fiercely inflate the housing market bubble, but everyone - from realtors to financial analysts, and even buyers - can see that the break-neck pace of price appreciation isn't sustainable for much longer. Whether due to a fatal hike in mortgage rates, construction issues, or a historic inventory shortage, a housing bubble burst is looming on the horizon. Prices will have to face a major correction as increasingly more Americans are being ruthlessly pushed out of the market.
The fact that this unprecedented home-buying frenzy is occurring amid one of the worst economic recessions this country has ever experienced is showing us how this boom is being artificially fueled by record-low interest rates, but since inflation risks are mounting and the Federal Reserve has already started to elevate rates to levels not seen in almost a year, it seems that a devastating housing crash is fast approaching and that's what we're going to analyze in this video.
In less than a year, the average home price in the United States jumped a whopping 16 percent, according to the National Association of Realtors, and the increase was even higher in some regions of the country, such as the Northeast and West, which are both up 21% from last year. On the other hand, housing inventory remains at record lows.
Buyers have engaged in a wild frenzy to find a new home. Recent reports are outlining that most homes don't stay more than 2 weeks on listings and oftentimes they are sold way above listing prices. In California, a $400,000 house had 122 offers in 2 days, which highlights buyers' desperate run regardless of skyrocketing real-estate prices. The absurd number of offers is a symptom of a market artificially stimulated by low mortgage rates, which has been contributing to keep demand heated, and therefore, to continuously fuel the housing price bubble.
A recent realtor.com report revealed that, right now, the national median home list price is at $370,000. Meanwhile, to become a homeowner today households have to possess at least double the wealth they had a decade ago. The break-neck pace of home price appreciation is causing disturbing distortions all across the market. Real-estate firms are worried this out-of-control bubble could soon trigger a housing crash, particularly because the affordability crisis is keeping potential buyers out of the market.
One of the main reasons this is happening is due to the utterly reckless monetary policies of our leaders. Although the near-zero interest rates supported the housing rally and the formation of several asset bubbles, considering that our money supply has almost gone vertical, climbing from 4 trillion dollars to 18 trillion dollars in just 12 months, inflation fears have started to arise. In turn, the Federal Reserve already has begun the process of rising mortgage rates to prevent the economy from overheating.
Consequently, most home buyers will have to face some tough choices: they will have to either lower their budget to purchase the property they want or completely exit the market as the dream of owning a home simply isn’t within their means anymore. That will undoubtedly add extra pressure on the rate of home price appreciation, since its clear unsustainability might spark a disastrous housing market crash. Furthermore, one of the sharpest analyses of this splendid bubble comes from Wolf Richter, on WolfStreet.com, who provided a more accurate way to evaluate the extension of this crisis by looking at the National Case-Shiller Home Price Index.
The most disturbing data come as the index scrutinized the surge in home prices over the past two decades. In January 2000, the index was set at 100. Now, it is at 236, meaning that house prices have soared on average by 136% since January 2000. Moreover, as Ritcher explains that "no housing market can produce enough homes when homes are massively used as vacant investment speculations. Because this creates an artificial shortage," citing homeowners who are waiting for the bubble to inflate even further so that they can accumulate equity and sell their house when the bubble reaches its peak.
The Fed may have created this false impression that they will be able to move heavens to continue to inflate every conceivable asset bubble, but in real terms, we're very close to hitting our monetary policy limit. And as money stops being poured into the markets, mortgage rates are forced up, and other asset bubbles start busting, prices will face a correction and the value of homeowners' assets will inevitably fall. There is no shortage of warnings that a dramatic housing market crash is ahead, and we should all watch very closely the next unfoldings of this crazy home buying euphoria here, on Epic Economist."
Saturday, April 3, 2021
Chet Raymo, “At Home In An Infinite Universe”
“At Home In An Infinite Universe”
by Chet Raymo
“They are questions that bedeviled thinkers for thousands of years: Is the universe infinite or finite, eternal or of a finite age? It is certainly hard to imagine a universe that extends without limit in every direction, or a universe without a beginning or end. It is equally difficult to imagine a finite universe; what is beyond the edge? Or a beginning or end in time; how can something come from nothing? how can what is cease to be?
The problems are so intractable philosophically that their resolution has generally been left to the theologians, which from a philosophical (or scientific) perspective offers no solution at all. Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake for proposing a philosophical resolution (an infinite universe) that offended theology.
An escape from befuddlement is provided by Einstein’s theory of general relativity, which - for example - can describe a finite universe without a boundary, as the “two-dimensional” surface of a sphere is finite and without an edge. Unfortunately, multi-dimensional curved space-time is so counterintuitive that it is difficult to get one’s head around it without mastery of the mathematics. Given a choice between the ancient myths of your local preacher and the obtuse mathematics of the physics professor, it’s not hard to guess what most folks will opt for.
I have reviewed a book by physics professor Chad Orzel called “How To Teach Relativity To Your Dog.” It’s a fun romp, and clever pedagogy, but I can’t imagine it making the best seller list, much less displacing “Heaven Is For Real.”
Meanwhile, I’m reading a meditation on infinity by physics professor Anthony Aguirre, in a collection of essays called “Future Science.” He discusses contemporary cosmological theories based on general relativity, and in particular the rehabilitation of the idea of an infinite and eternal universe, or, more precisely, that our universe might be just one of an infinity of infinite universes. He writes in conclusion: “What seems clear, however, is that infinity can no longer be safely ignored; beautifully constructed, empirically supported, self-consistent theories have brought infinity from idle curiosity to central player in contemporary cosmology. And if correct, the worldview these theories represent constitutes a perspective shift unlike any other: in comparison to the universe, we would be not just small but strictly zero. Well, I can’t imagine many folks racing to embrace that conclusion."
Oh, but wait. Aguirre adds one final sentence: “Yet here we are, contemplating – if not quite understanding – it all.”
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Full screen recommended.
Vangelis, “Cosmos: A Tour of the Universe”
The Poet: Robert Frost, “Acceptance”
“Acceptance”
“When the spent sun throws up its rays on cloud
And goes down burning into the gulf below,
No voice in nature is heard to cry aloud
At what has happened.
Birds, at least must know
It is the change to darkness in the sky.
Murmuring something quiet in her breast,
One bird begins to close a faded eye;
Or overtaken too far from his nest,
Hurrying low above the grove, some waif
Swoops just in time to his remembered tree.
At most he thinks or twitters softly, ‘safe!’
Now let the night be dark for all of me.
Let the night be too dark for me to see
Into the future. Let what will be, be.”
- Robert Frost
MUST WATCH! "Homeless Man Talks Reality; Nightmare Coming To America; Homelessness Out Of Control; Tent Cities"
Full screen!
Jeremiah Babe,
"Homeless Man Talks Reality; Nightmare Coming To America;
Homelessness Out Of Control; Tent Cities"
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"America The Beautiful"
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There but for the grace of God... yet.
"On Not Needling"
"On Not Needling"
by Eric Peters
"Rational people are defined by their refusal to do irrational things. They ask why – as opposed to saying, ok. A fine example of this would be a healthy person’s decision to not wear a “mask” – or permit himself to be “vaccinated” for an illness that poses next-to-nil threat of serious illness to a healthy person. It would be like someone in their 20s going coffin-shopping. Or giving up driving because there is a small chance they might die in a car wreck.
But granny might die! Well, then granny should wear a “mask” – or stay home. Just as granny shouldn’t drive if she can’t see. Mean spirited? No more so than a blind person insisting no one else can drive because they can’t see.
Why wear a “mask” when you aren’t sick? It makes as much sense as wearing a raincoat when it isn’t raining. It makes even less sense to partially wear it, as many perfectly healthy people who wear these “masks” regularly do, as for example when entering a restaurant – and then not wearing it when they sit down to eat. This is as preposterous as taking a raincoat off and on in a thunderstorm. It’s either “raining” – or it isn’t.
The truth is these people are pathetic Kabuki performers who believe in the theater of obedience. If they really believed it was “raining” the ‘Rona, they’d never lower their “masks.” That would be like taking off one’s raincoat in the middle of a thunderstorm.
It would be worse, actually. Would you ever take off your “mask” in a closed room full of people exhaling hantavirus Or for that matter any virus you actually believed might kill you? That they do take off their “masks” – which are often just old bandanas or disposable dust masks anyhow – after performing the required Kabuki – in order to be allowed to engage in what used to be considered normal everyday interactions – is as much a measure of their slavish poltroonery as it is of their hypocrisy.
Why get a “vaccine” – as this unknown substance they are trying to cajole and even force us all to take is styled – when you aren’t sick? One that might very well make you sick? The facts about the risk of the “vaccine” are not known. We don’t even know what’s actually in the “vaccine.” But they want us to put this in our bodies.
What rational person allows himself to be injected with a “vaccine” that contains who-knows-what and which might cause who-knows-what manufactured by legally immunized pharmaceutical cartels with a massive monetary motive to establish a regime of forced mass “vaccinations”?
Meanwhile, it is known that the ‘Rona does not kill 99.8-something percent of the healthy population. What rational person willingly assumes an unknown risk – that of taking a “vaccine” of who-knows-what that might do who-knows-what – which the manufacturers of have eliminated their risk of being held accountable for in the event you do get sick?
Would you buy a car on this basis? Would a company be allowed to sell a car on this basis? Rational people ask such questions – and expect answers. They get pressured, instead. They are characterized as “anti” vaccines. Which is the same as saying rational people are “anti” wearing of raincoats in the sunshine.
It is true – but not in a derogatory sense. It is true in a rational sense. The problem is that the rational – who ask rational questions and demand rational answers – are being pathologized by the pathological.
There is an assertion about the “vaccine” that bears examination. It is claimed to be “95 percent” effective. That 5 percent not-effective is a much higher number – several whole numbers higher – than the fractional number representing the known risk of “the virus” to healthy people. Why is it being characterized as unhealthy to point out such incongruities? To ask rational questions based upon such factual considerations? There is also the very real risk of normalizing this pathologically dangerous business of insisting that healthy people submit to “vaccinations” of who-knows-what, with all the risk of the taking thereof on the person being injected with who-knows-what as a general principle.
Not just this “vaccine.” Future “vaccines” – which the pushers of this “vaccine” are already openly saying there will be more of. Given that The Variants! The Variants! – the ululation which is replacing The Cases! The Cases! – are potentially innumerable, it is likely there will be innumerable “vaccines” pushed upon the population, there being quite a lot of money to be made when you can force the entire population – or almost all of it – to take your product. Especially when you’re not liable for whatever harm your product ends up inflicting on the people who are forced to take it.
How much is your health – which is fine right now and probably has been since before this mess began – worth to you? How about your future fertility? How about the risk that your joints might ache for the rest of your life? These are some of the known risks – the admitted risks – of the “vaccine.” The liability for which is all yours, baby.
How much unknown risk are you willing to assume – for the sake of avoiding the well-known nearly nil risk of more than maybe feeling not-so-good for a few days? If you even get sick at all. If – as asserted – the “vaccine” is so very safe, then why are the manufacturers legally immunized from any harms it may cause? Perhaps if the same liability were in force that is in force for the manufacturers of cars, there would be less skepticism about these “vaccines.”
Rational people weigh such considerations. Irrational people are carried away by their fears – and by their pathetic willingness to assume the risk of god-knows-what and the absolute certainty of some very unpleasant future things to come for the sake of being allowed to resume a degree of their formerly “normal” lives. They agreed to this a priori – when they submitted to the Kabuki of “mask” wearing, the whole point of which was to suborn not just their but everyone else’s submission to the “vaccine.” One follows the other as logically as accepting a hand on the thigh often leads to hands placed elsewhere. Can you feel it making its next move?
The whole point of the “masking” was – and remains – to get 100 percent of the population to demonstrate publicly that they are terrified of a “virus” that doesn’t kill 99.8-something percent of the population. In order to force 100 percent of them to accept a “vaccine” 99.8-something percent of them need like they need a raincoat in a thunderstorm – only with consequences that are far worse than merely looking like an idiot."
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The Poet: James Kavanaugh, “Searchers”
“Searchers”
“Some people do not have to search -
they find their niche early in life and rest there,
seemingly contented and resigned.
They do not seem to ask much of life,
sometimes they do not seem to take it seriously.
At times I envy them,
but usually I do not understand them -
seldom do they understand me.
I am one of the searchers.
There are, I believe, millions of us.
We are not unhappy, but neither are we really content.
We continue to explore life,
hoping to uncover its ultimate secret.
We continue to explore ourselves,
hoping to understand.
We like to walk along the beach -
we are drawn by the ocean,
taken by its power, its unceasing motion,
its mystery and unspeakable beauty.
We like forests and mountains, deserts and hidden rivers,
and the lonely cities as well.
Our sadness is as much a part of our lives as is our laughter.
To share our sadness with the one we love is
perhaps as great a joy as we can know -
unless it is to share our laughter.
We searchers are ambitious only for life itself,
for everything beautiful it can provide.
Most of all we want to love and be loved.
We want to live in a relationship that will not impede
our wandering, nor prevent our search, nor lock us in prison walls.
We do not want to prove ourselves to another or compete for love.
We are wanderers, dreamers and lovers,
lonely souls who dare ask of life everything good and beautiful.”
- James Kavanaugh
"Poof!"
“Some people center the universe around themselves; while making other people nothing but decorations to their existence. “I will do this and then I will do that and then people will think this about me and then people will think that about me, and then I will add that person to my life when the convenient time arrives, and this person over here would make a very convenient addition as well…” They build their own thrones for themselves, and add decorations all around their thrones. The problem with that is: it does not bring happiness. A throne must be built for you; it must not be you who builds your own throne. If so, everything that you think you are is only an illusion! And illusions dissolve one day. Poof!”
- C. JoyBell C.
"Addicted"
"Addicted"
by Charles Hugh Smith
"I realize nobody wants to hear that most of their "wealth" was conjured out of thin air, but there it is: and that which was conjured out of thin air will return to thin air. Something for nothing is a powerful attractor, but it doesn't offer a narrative that the delusionally self-important demand: I earned this by working hard and being smart. Oh, right, yeah, sure. It had nothing to do with currency being created out of thin air and made available to insiders, financiers, banks, etc., or being able to leverage this new money into ever-larger bets, all guaranteed to be winning trades by the Federal Reserve. Nope, you're all stone-cold geniuses.
Back in reality, tangible assets - real as opposed to financial conjuring - are at historic lows relative to financial-bubble assets. Tangible assets represent such a meager proportion of total assets that we might assume they could slip to zero without affecting our "wealth" much at all.
The Fed Is the “Greater Fool”: If we compare financial-bubble assets to the nation's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), a (flawed) measure of real-world activity, we find they’re worth over six times the nation's real-world economy. This reflects what happens to valuations when "money" is created out of thin air and then leveraged into fantastic, monstrous illusions of "wealth." Assets are chasing their own tails higher, completely disconnected from the real world.
Here’s the sole dynamic driving assets higher: the Fed is the “greater fool.” What do I mean? Everyone knows the Fed will always save the day. Should valuations falter, buyers know there will always be a greater fool willing to pay more for an overvalued asset because the Fed has promised us it will always be the greater fool. This obviously isn’t just plain old normal healthy "capitalism" at work.
So by all means, lavish yourself with praise for your hard work and genius, and keep chasing your own tail because the Fed has promised us it will always be the greater fool. What a pretty fantasy. But aren’t we on "the road to recovery?” The "recovery" has an unfortunate but all-too accurate connotation: recovery from addiction.
No Recovery From Addiction to the Fed’s Free Money: The "recovery" we've been told is already accelerating at a wondrous pace does not include any treatment of the market's addiction to Federal Reserve free money for financiers. Rather, the "recovery" is entirely dependent on a never-ending speedball of Fed smack and crack and a booster of Fed financial meth.
The addiction to Fed speedballs had already turned the entire financial sector into a casino of lunatic junkies who delusionally believe they're all geniuses. Beneath the illusory stability of the god-like Fed has our back, the addiction to free money has completely destabilized America's social, political and economic orders by boosting wealth and income inequality to unprecedented extremes.
While it's convenient to blame the carnage on the response to the Covid pandemic, the damage to the speedball-addicted financial system had already reached extremes before the pandemic. The addiction began decades ago, but like all addictions, the amount of stimulus needed to maintain the high keeps expanding, and eventually the need can't be met without toxic doses: then the junkie addicted system collapses.
Both Smack and Crack: The ever-greater doses of Fed speedballs have unleashed both deflation (smack) and inflation (crack). Real returns on ordinary savings have been crushed to zero (deflation of ordinary income), and as the cost of capital/credit have been dropped to near-zero, then the purchasing power of wages has deflated while the speculative gains of those who own assets have soared (asset inflation).
By lowering the cost of capital to zero, the Fed has generated fatally perverse incentives. With the cost of capital at zero, it makes sense to buy labor-saving technologies to replace costly labor - labor that is costly to employers because of America's perverse sickcare system, which burdens employers with ever-higher costs.
Not only have the Fed's free-money speedballs made it essentially free for financiers to speculate in the stock market casino, the Fed has rigged the game and bailed out its cronies whenever their bets soured. This has fueled infinite moral hazard: Go ahead and gamble with free money from the Fed, and go ahead and leverage it up 10-to-1 because the Fed will bail you out if you lose, but if you win, the stupendous gains are yours to keep.
The problem with addiction is you're dependent on the high, no matter what the eventual consequences may be. Long-term consequences are ignored because all that matters to the addict is to get the next Fed speedball and throw it on the gambling table to keep the high going.
Our entire economy is now dependent on ever-expanding speculative gains. Should the casino winnings falter, our economy will crash. And given the primacy of money and consumption in our society and political system, the financial collapse of the Fed's casino lunacy will sweep those systems over the falls.
The Fatal Consequences of Addiction: As the level of Fed smack and crack needed to maintain the high increases, system fragility increases geometrically. The irony of addiction is that when the crack/meth kicks in, the addict feels god-like, in control, invulnerable. This artificial confidence is entirely illusory, a deadly combination of delusion and hubris. In this delusional state of supreme confidence, the addict loses touch with reality, i.e. the fatal consequences of the addiction. That's the detour we've taken in becoming addicted to the Fed's free-money speedballs.
Now the road to recovery has ended in a trackless wilderness. There is no way back and no way forward. The addict's addled confidence will push them into the ice-cold river. And as they're swept over the falls, the realization that it was all a drug-induced delusion will come too late to make a difference."
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