"Paranoia is just another mask for ignorance.
The truth, when you finally chase it down,
is almost always far worse than your darkest visions and fears."
- Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
So, we rise from the rubble...
Friday, May 28, 2021
Greg Hunter, "Weekly News Wrap-Up 5/28/21"
"Weekly News Wrap-Up 5/28/21"
By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
"According to the 2008 Nobel Prize winner in medicine, Luc Montagnier, the CV19 vaccines are creating variants or mutations that are resistant to the CV19 vaccine. He also says that he is following the global vaccination push closely and says he is documenting that the “curve of vaccination is followed by the curve of deaths.” Montagnier says he is seeing “patients who have become sick with Corona after being vaccinated.” The mainstream press is already trying to tamp this down by saying Montagnier is an “anti-vaxer” and was misquoted. I guarantee you he is not misquoted here on USAWatchdog.com. See for yourself.
Election integrity audits are continuing but are also being vigorously resisted by Democrats in several states. The mainstream media (MSM), which has become a propaganda arm of Deep State Democrats, are writing one negative story after another. They are calling the auditors “grifters” and the audits “bogus.” These are the same organizations who told us the CV19 virus did not come from a lab in China, and now we know, that, too was a propaganda lie. It all will eventually boil down to the voting machines and the actual ballots.
During the 2020 campaign, Vice President Joe Biden famously said that his tax increase will not be paid by anyone making less than $400,000 a year. If you consider the inflation rate that is vaulting higher, you know everyone who eats or drives a car is being taxed by inflation. Now, Biden wants Congress to approve a $6 trillion budget in fiscal 2022. How’s he going to pay for that? Tax, tax and more tax on everyone and every company in America. Another Biden election promise fulfilled."
Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he talks about these
stories and more in the Weekly News Wrap-Up for 5/28/21:
MUST READ Repost: "Everyone Vaccinated For Covid Will DIE, Warns French Virologist"
"Everyone Vaccinated For Covid Will DIE, Warns French Virologist"
Wuhan Flu shots were designed to “slow kill”
the masses through time-delayed death.
by Ethan Huff
"There is no chance of long-term survival for anyone who received a Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) injection, according to leading French virologist Luc Montagnier. Everyone who is getting jabbed for the Chinese Virus will die, he reportedly stated during a recent interview, which you can watch at Brighteon.com.
“There is no hope and no possible treatment for those who have already been vaccinated,” Montagnier stated plainly during the segment. “We must be prepared to cremate the bodies.” After studying at length the ingredients contained in the injections and what they do, Montagnier came to the conclusion that every single person who gets the shot will eventually die from antibody-dependent enhancement, or ADE. “That is all that can be said,” he added.
Montagnier is credited with being the first to discover HIV, by the way, having warned last spring that the Wuhan Flu contains artificially spliced DNA from the autoimmune-provoking virus. It now appears as though these same alterations can be found in Chinese Virus “vaccines,” which are priming people’s bodies for eventual sudden death.
Montagnier also stated last year that the “presence of elements of HIV and germs of malaria in the genome of coronavirus is highly suspect and the characteristics of the virus could not have arisen naturally.” It turns out he was right. It is one thing for the genetically modified (GMO) virus to be intentionally released, but a whole different thing for the medical establishment to then introduce an injection for it right in the middle of an alleged “pandemic.” In Montagnier’s view, this approach is an “unacceptable mistake,” at best, because all it will do is spread even more “variants” of the Chinese Virus and kill more people – which appears to have been the plan all along.
We have Donald Trump and his “Operation Warp Speed” scheme to thank for this nightmare, by the way. While some of his diehard supporters still insist that Trump should not be blamed because he was simply “misled” by his cabinet concerning the nature of the injections, Trump himself is aggressively pushing them even to this day, despite the tens of thousands of known cases of injury and death.
Evidence continues to mount that Chinese Virus injections were designed to be a “slow” kill for many, meaning their detrimental impact takes a bit of time to manifest. For some, however, injury and death will come immediately, as we have seen in the headlines as of late. All of this would explain the mad rush to vaccinate people at “warp speed,” using any ploy or coercion tactic necessary to reach the desired target. Once enough vaccinated people start dropping dead, the remaining unvaccinated will more than likely resist, which is why the Biden regime is moving quickly to get as many people injected as possibly, preferably before July 4.
“The powers that be have your DNA from the swab tests in a database link with an artificial intelligence that will determine the best time for one to die, and it will be by a ‘natural’ cause like stroke or heart attack,” one commenter at Disclose.tv wrote about people who are not necessarily vaccinated but who have undergone a covid “test.” “A certain frequency will resonate with the target only by the mobility tower closest to your home. Skynet is not sending droids, but frequencies.” More of the latest news about the death and destruction being brought to bear by Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) injections can be found at ChemicalViolence.com."
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MUST READ:
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Related:
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"The prestigious Salk Institute, founded by vaccine pioneer Jonas Salk, has authored and published a bombshell scientific article revealing that the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein is what’s actually causing vascular damage in covid patients and covid vaccine recipients, promoting the strokes, heart attacks, migraines, blood clots and other harmful reactions that have already killed thousands of Americans (source: VAERS.hhs.gov)."
Critically, all four covid vaccine brands currently in widespread use either inject patients with the spike protein or, via mRNA technology, instruct the patient’s own body to manufacture spike proteins and release them into their own blood. This floods the patient’s body with the very spike protein that the Salk Institute has now identified as the smoking gun cause of vascular damage and related events (such as blood clots, which are killing many people who take the vaccines). "Put simply, it means the vaccines were designed to contain the very element that’s killing people."
Full article:
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Thursday, May 27, 2021
"Starvation & Food Shortages Will Be The New Normal Once The Imminent Economic Collapse Hits"
Full screen recommended.
"Starvation & Food Shortages Will Be The New
Normal Once The Imminent Economic Collapse Hits"
by Epic Economist
"The acute supply shortages we have been seeing since the beginning of the health crisis are actually not something new in the history of the United States. Throughout the past century, America faced several crises, external and internal conflicts, and economic downturns. Times of shortages are far more common than people can remember, and in the old days, hoarding and panic buying already existed. People used to stock up on everyday essentials ranging from flour to toilet paper, not very different from what happens today. However, except for two periods of extreme drought, food shortages have often been second-order crises caused by political and economic tensions, not by the lack of food per se. Yet, there were other moments when multiple determinants resulted in severe shortages too, like during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
If there's something we could learn from the supply chain disruptions induced by the effects of the health crisis is that food shortages do not mean food doesn't exist. It means that food isn't available on grocery shelves, where consumers can easily find it. In 2020, during the peak of the sanitary outbreak, the threat of lockdowns prompted millions of people to rush into the stores and leave shelves empty. What most people didn't know at the time was that there were tons and tons of food waiting to be delivered, but due to transportation problems and government restrictions, they never were. Farmers and food processors were forced to dump their milk, meat, and fresh produce because they were not allowed to sell them directly to consumers due to contractual obligations. Millions of dollars worth of food were destroyed while grocery chains allegedly “struggled” to keep up with the overwhelming demand.
But if there's one thing most Americans don't know or are failing to consider is that another major economic collapse is looming. As we discussed in many of our previous videos, the government's monetary response to the health crisis has pushed our national debt up to almost 30 trillion dollars, and this is something we should all be paying close attention to. We are told that because the United States is such a powerful economy, we're allowed to take up on more and more and more debt, and everything will be just fine - which is far from the truth.
This is the kind of debt trap that drove many of the world's leading economies to the ground, and it is just not intelligent to sit and wait to see what happens. Recently, a number of experts have been stressing that our financial system is broken. They say that regardless of what reckless investors want to believe, we're on the verge of a financial disaster. If our markets crash and the government steps in with another trillion-dollar rescue plan we will see the entire economy going down the same financial cliff Argentina and Greece did in recent years.
The only thing preventing another calamitous economic depression right now is the fact that the American Dollar is the world’s reserve currency. But in face of an overly expanded money supply, a huge national debt, runaway inflation, and the decay of our currency's purchasing power, major economies have started to walk away from dollar transactions and dump their Treasury Bonds, which means that in a snap of fingers, we could find ourselves in the middle of a financial collapse no one saw it coming.
When a situation like this occurs, grocers have essentially two alternatives: either they hold on to their supply stockpiles and wait until they can sell them at a higher price or they just raise the prices - period. So when food becomes a scarce commodity and prices start skyrocketing, the vast majority of the population becomes unable to buy food for their families. Only those with enough money and influence will be able to find and buy what they need at such insanely inflated prices. This is how millions of Americans were thrown out of their comfortable middle-class lives and fallen right into poverty during the Great Depression. Those people faced starvation - and we are about to see millions upon millions just like them as soon as we move on to the next stage of the economic collapse.
A broken society and empty stomachs are enough to bring a country down. People will not be panic buying and hoarding. They will be fighting and stealing. We have already seen a very small fraction of that tumult during the Texas storms and the Colonial Pipeline shutdown. Only this time, things won't come back to "normal". There will be no normal anymore. There will only be chaos. The big question is: are you ready?"
“Fantasyland Is Going To End; Multiple Economic Collapses; Power Outages”
Jeremiah Babe,
“Fantasyland Is Going To End;
Multiple Economic Collapses; Power Outages”
Gregory Mannarino, PM 5/27/21: "Inflation Is SURGING! Indicators At 2 Decade High WITH TRILLIONS IN MORE DEBT COMING"
Gregory Mannarino, PM 5/27/21:
"Inflation Is SURGING! Indicators At 2 Decade
High WITH TRILLIONS IN MORE DEBT COMING"
"A Look to the Heavens"
"Distorted galaxy NGC 2442 can be found in the southern constellation of the flying fish, (Piscis) Volans. Located about 50 million light-years away, the galaxy's two spiral arms extending from a pronounced central bar give it a hook-shaped appearance. This deep color image also shows the arms' obscuring dust lanes, young blue star clusters and reddish star forming regions surrounding a core of yellowish light from an older population of stars.
But the star forming regions seem more concentrated along the drawn-out (right side) spiral arm. The distorted structure is likely the result of an ancient close encounter with the smaller galaxy seen near the top left of this field of view. The two interacting galaxies are separated by about 150,000 light-years at the estimated distance of NGC 2442."
- http://www.antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap090228.html
•
"Why Do We Look to the Stars?"
For as long as there has been humans we have searched for our place in the cosmos. Where are we? Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a hum-drum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people. This perspective is a courageous continuation of our penchant for constructing and testing mental models of the skies; the Sun as a red-hot stone, the stars as a celestial flame, the Galaxy as the backbone of night.
․
•
"Why Do We Look to the Stars?"
"The Cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be. Our feeblest contemplations of the Cosmos stir us — there is a tingling in the spine, a catch in the voice, a faint sensation of a distant memory, as if we were falling from a great height. We know we are approaching the greatest of mysteries.
For as long as there has been humans we have searched for our place in the cosmos. Where are we? Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a hum-drum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people. This perspective is a courageous continuation of our penchant for constructing and testing mental models of the skies; the Sun as a red-hot stone, the stars as a celestial flame, the Galaxy as the backbone of night.
․
The size and age of the Cosmos are beyond ordinary human understanding. Lost somewhere between immensity and eternity is our tiny planetary home. In a cosmic perspective, most human concerns seem insignificant, even petty. And yet our species is young and curious and brave and shows much promise. In the last few millennia we have made the most astonishing and unexpected discoveries about the Cosmos and our place within it, explorations that are exhilarating to consider. They remind us that humans have evolved to wonder, that understanding is a joy, that knowledge is prerequisite to survival. I believe our future depends powerfully on how well we understand this Cosmos in which we float like a mote of dust in the morning sky. Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere."
- Carl Sagan
Chet Raymo, “The Spark of Life”
“The Spark of Life”
by Chet Raymo
"In a previous post I quoted Teilhard de Chardin referring to the discovery of electromagnetic waves as a "prodigious biological event." A biological event? What could he mean? The universe was awash with electromagnetic waves long before life appeared on Earth, or anywhere else in the universe. The cosmic microwave background radiation- the residue of the big bang- is electromagnetic. Starlight is an electromagnetic wave. You can "discover" electromagnetic waves by opening your eyes.
Of course, what Teilhard referred to was the conscious control of electromagnetic radiation by sentient biological creatures. Electromagnetic waves were predicted theoretically by the Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell in 1864, as he played with equations describing electric and magnetic fields. Then, twenty-two years later, electromagnetic waves were experimentally demonstrated by Heinrich Hertz, who in effect made the first radio broadcast and reception. At Hertz's transmitter a spark jumped back and forth between two metal spheres 50 million times a second. Across the room a similar spark was instantly produced at the receiver. Invisible electrical energy had passed through space at the speed of light.
A spark dancing between two spheres- an unpretentious beginning for the age of radio, television, mobile phones and wireless internet. That first transmitter and receiver had a basement-workshop simplicity about them. Hertz demonstrated the nature of electromagnetic waves with constructions of wood, brass and sealing wax.
Wood, brass, sealing wax and conscious intelligence. Here on Earth- perhaps throughout the universe- stardust gave rise to living slime. The slime complexified, became conscious. Invented mathematics, experimental science. Caused sparks to jump between metal spheres. Sent the signature of biological activity across a room. Across a planet. Across the universe."
Of course, what Teilhard referred to was the conscious control of electromagnetic radiation by sentient biological creatures. Electromagnetic waves were predicted theoretically by the Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell in 1864, as he played with equations describing electric and magnetic fields. Then, twenty-two years later, electromagnetic waves were experimentally demonstrated by Heinrich Hertz, who in effect made the first radio broadcast and reception. At Hertz's transmitter a spark jumped back and forth between two metal spheres 50 million times a second. Across the room a similar spark was instantly produced at the receiver. Invisible electrical energy had passed through space at the speed of light.
A spark dancing between two spheres- an unpretentious beginning for the age of radio, television, mobile phones and wireless internet. That first transmitter and receiver had a basement-workshop simplicity about them. Hertz demonstrated the nature of electromagnetic waves with constructions of wood, brass and sealing wax.
Wood, brass, sealing wax and conscious intelligence. Here on Earth- perhaps throughout the universe- stardust gave rise to living slime. The slime complexified, became conscious. Invented mathematics, experimental science. Caused sparks to jump between metal spheres. Sent the signature of biological activity across a room. Across a planet. Across the universe."
"Prodigious!”
“The Mouse And The Books”
“The Mouse And The Books”
by Paulo Coelho
“When I was interned in Dr. Eiras Hospital, I began to have panic crises. One day, I decided to consult the psychiatrist in charge of my case: “Doctor, I am overcome by fear; it takes from me the joy of living.” “Here in my office there is a mouse that eats my books”, said the doctor. “If I get desperate about this mouse, he will hide from me and I will do nothing else in life but hunt him. Therefore, I put the most important books in a safe place and let him gnaw some others. In this way, he is still a mouse and does not become a monster. Be afraid of some things and concentrate all your fear on them – so that you have courage in the rest.”
"Zombie Highway"
"Zombie Highway"
by Bill Bonner
YOUGHAL, IRELAND – "Here’s a joke without a punchline from the Stansberry Morning Market Preview: “Democrats called on President Joe Biden to replace former President Donald Trump’s Federal Reserve picks when their terms expire later this year, potentially reshaping the central bank.”
The only plausible reason for replacing the Trump picks with Biden picks would be to make the Federal Reserve more responsive to the Democratic agenda – that is, even more ready to print money to cover the cost of programs we can’t afford. Someone should tell them… they’re wasting their time. Trump’s picks are some of the biggest get-along, go-along nincompoops to ever join the central bank. Trying to find even bigger dumbheads will be a challenge as unfruitful as a vasectomy.
Servile Fed: Jerome Powell is Trump’s man. So is Randal Quarles. And Richard Clarida. And Christopher Waller. And Miki Bowman. Except for Lael Brainard, who was appointed by Barack Obama, they are all Trump’s choices. And they run the Fed. How could you possibly “reshape” the Fed into a more servile… fully lobotomized… mouth-breathing… knuckle-dragging… confederacy of dunces? It’s hard to imagine.
They’re already printing money on a scale never before seen in America. They are adding $120 billion per month – more money every six months than was added in the whole period from the beginning of the dollar in 1792… to the year 2000. And in the last few weeks, almost all of them have gone on record, reciting their unadulterated faith in stimmy spending to raise inflation… and boost the economy.
Yes, Dear Reader, the U.S. is already on the Zombie Highway… tripping lightly over good intentions and stomping down hard on the bad ones… with no exit ramp.
Obvious Solution: But that last dot is one most dear readers don’t want to connect. They imagine that there must be some way to change course… some trick that will “save” us… some president – maybe Donald J. Trump himself – who could appoint a new slate of Fed governors and put the brakes on…
Readers often accuse us of dereliction… or defeatism. “All you do is complain,” writes the typical kvetcher. “How about offering a solution?” But the remedy is so blindingly obvious, there is surely no need to mention it: Stop printing fake money… Allow interest rates to go where they want… And balance the federal budget. There’s no mystery to it.
In seconds, interest rates would shoot up… the stock and bond markets would collapse… the economy would go into a deep depression…the president and most of Congress would be impeached or recalled…goofy, wealth-destroying bailouts, boondoggles, and giveaways would have to be abandoned (there would be no further talk of a Green New Deal… or reparations… or another round of stimmy checks)…and millions of businesses and households would go broke.
We’ve had the gain, you might say, here’s the pain! And while this sharp correction would set the stage for a long period of real prosperity, there is no chance – none – that the deciders would permit it.
Zombie Hell: Alas, we live in the big, wide world. We only control a tiny little part of it. And in the big, wide world, stuff happens. Not always good stuff. And it happens regardless of what we want… or even what we think – following patterns scrawled in blood and bile, not carefully drafted by the brain.
What Roman wished for the destruction of the empire? What Irishman wanted to see his island invaded by Vikings… then Normans… then Cromwell… his crops burned… his family starved… his language, religion, and culture demonized or demoted? What American in the 1920s wanted a 10-year depression that would only end in a catastrophic world war? Who even wanted 10% inflation in America in the 1970s?
Yesterday, we saw the Zombie Index – a measure of the percentage of Americans contributing a big, fat zero to the economy – at 52%. Slightly more than half the country now shuffles from one handout to the next. But you don’t need a majority to get to Zombie Hell. No vote is necessary. Monetary and fiscal policies are decided, of course, by the deciders. They are the elite, who actually control government. The Zombie Index merely tells us how far up the leg the gangrene has gone.
Every one of the zombie programs now in action… or under consideration… is an opportunity for the deciders to gain power, status, and wealth. Money is printed by the Fed (there’s no other way to support these programs) and then distributed as the deciders see fit. Cut off the money, and you also cut off the deciders’ source of power and loot.
Vital Linchpin: Normally, this perverse system is held in check by money itself. There’s only so much of it… and people are reluctant to hand over their own good money to be squandered on the feds’ bad programs. That’s why fake money is the linchpin of the whole corrupt system. It allows the deciders to shift more and more money to themselves… without appearing to take it from anyone else – neither in taxes nor even by borrowing it (which would drive interest rates up and create an unfortunate feedback loop).
The only restraint… as the Modern Monetary Theorists tell us… is inflation. Eventually, prices rise. And when they do, the theorists tell us that the government will raise taxes to remove money from the system, squelch inflation, and keep things running on an even keel, all the way to paradise.
Never Gonna Happen: But that ain’t gonna happen. This month, we got a brief glimpse of the future… When the latest figures showed inflation rising at the fastest pace in 40 years, the deciders did not decide to raise taxes or interest rates… nor to withdraw their trillion-dollar programs… cut back on spending… or stop printing money. Instead, Trump’s Fed governors gave us all the reasons why this inflation is “transitory”… and why we shouldn’t worry about it. This is the only subject on which both Democrats and Republicans are steadfastly united. They are all the “deciders” – all members of the elite. And while they may jostle each other, trying to get their snouts in the trough, none has any intention of cutting off the slop."
Gregory Mannarino, AM 5/27/21: "The Economy Is Cratering FASTER! And It's About To Get MUCH Worse"
Gregory Mannarino, AM 5/27/21:
"The Economy Is Cratering FASTER!
And It's About To Get MUCH Worse"
"Everyone Vaccinated For Covid Will DIE, Warns French Virologist"
"Everyone Vaccinated For Covid Will DIE, Warns French Virologist"
Wuhan Flu shots were designed to “slow kill”
the masses through time-delayed death.
by Ethan Huff
"There is no chance of long-term survival for anyone who received a Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) injection, according to leading French virologist Luc Montagnier. Everyone who is getting jabbed for the Chinese Virus will die, he reportedly stated during a recent interview, which you can watch at Brighteon.com.
“There is no hope and no possible treatment for those who have already been vaccinated,” Montagnier stated plainly during the segment. “We must be prepared to cremate the bodies.” After studying at length the ingredients contained in the injections and what they do, Montagnier came to the conclusion that every single person who gets the shot will eventually die from antibody-dependent enhancement, or ADE. “That is all that can be said,” he added.
Montagnier is credited with being the first to discover HIV, by the way, having warned last spring that the Wuhan Flu contains artificially spliced DNA from the autoimmune-provoking virus. It now appears as though these same alterations can be found in Chinese Virus “vaccines,” which are priming people’s bodies for eventual sudden death.
Montagnier also stated last year that the “presence of elements of HIV and germs of malaria in the genome of coronavirus is highly suspect and the characteristics of the virus could not have arisen naturally.” It turns out he was right. It is one thing for the genetically modified (GMO) virus to be intentionally released, but a whole different thing for the medical establishment to then introduce an injection for it right in the middle of an alleged “pandemic.” In Montagnier’s view, this approach is an “unacceptable mistake,” at best, because all it will do is spread even more “variants” of the Chinese Virus and kill more people – which appears to have been the plan all along.
We have Donald Trump and his “Operation Warp Speed” scheme to thank for this nightmare, by the way. While some of his diehard supporters still insist that Trump should not be blamed because he was simply “misled” by his cabinet concerning the nature of the injections, Trump himself is aggressively pushing them even to this day, despite the tens of thousands of known cases of injury and death.
Evidence continues to mount that Chinese Virus injections were designed to be a “slow” kill for many, meaning their detrimental impact takes a bit of time to manifest. For some, however, injury and death will come immediately, as we have seen in the headlines as of late. All of this would explain the mad rush to vaccinate people at “warp speed,” using any ploy or coercion tactic necessary to reach the desired target. Once enough vaccinated people start dropping dead, the remaining unvaccinated will more than likely resist, which is why the Biden regime is moving quickly to get as many people injected as possibly, preferably before July 4.
“The powers that be have your DNA from the swab tests in a database link with an artificial intelligence that will determine the best time for one to die, and it will be by a ‘natural’ cause like stroke or heart attack,” one commenter at Disclose.tv wrote about people who are not necessarily vaccinated but who have undergone a covid “test.” “A certain frequency will resonate with the target only by the mobility tower closest to your home. Skynet is not sending droids, but frequencies.” More of the latest news about the death and destruction being brought to bear by Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) injections can be found at ChemicalViolence.com."
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MUST READ:
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Related:
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"The prestigious Salk Institute, founded by vaccine pioneer Jonas Salk, has authored and published a bombshell scientific article revealing that the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein is what’s actually causing vascular damage in covid patients and covid vaccine recipients, promoting the strokes, heart attacks, migraines, blood clots and other harmful reactions that have already killed thousands of Americans (source: VAERS.hhs.gov)."
Critically, all four covid vaccine brands currently in widespread use either inject patients with the spike protein or, via mRNA technology, instruct the patient’s own body to manufacture spike proteins and release them into their own blood. This floods the patient’s body with the very spike protein that the Salk Institute has now identified as the smoking gun cause of vascular damage and related events (such as blood clots, which are killing many people who take the vaccines). "Put simply, it means the vaccines were designed to contain the very element that’s killing people."
Full article:
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Wednesday, May 26, 2021
Gregory Mannarino, PM 5/26/21: “What Remains Of The Middle-Class Is Going Extinct Rapidly”
Gregory Mannarino, PM 5/26/21:
“What Remains Of The Middle-Class Is Going Extinct Rapidly”
“Your Next Job Is In Fast Food; High Prices, Low Wages; Huge Consequences Coming”
Jeremiah Babe,
“Your Next Job Is In Fast Food;
High Prices, Low Wages; Huge Consequences Coming”
"Housing Crash Is Here! Soaring Prices Result In Record Crash In Home, Appliance Buying Plans"
Full screen recommended.
"Housing Crash Is Here! Soaring Prices Result
In Record Crash In Home, Appliance Buying Plans"
by Epic Economist
"As the summer months approach, the weather isn't the only thing heating up - according to recent sales data, the housing market seems to be overheating, and home sales have been steadily declining, which means the current boom is nearing an epic burst. As home prices continue to skyrocket all across the country, buying a house is becoming increasingly difficult, and this has been preventing millions of people to enter the latest housing market rally and it has also led some experts to fear that the real estate price bubble might be getting ready to explode. In every corner of the market, major strains continue to emerge. Starting with the historically low inventory while existing homes are just too expensive. In April, the median existing home price was a record-high of $341,600. In May 2020, it was $283,500, a shocking year-to-year rise of more than 20 percent.
It's comprehensible why most people can't simply make their way into the market anymore - it seems almost impossible to afford current prices while wages are nowhere near keeping up with the pace of home price appreciation. Economists expect the supply and demand imbalance to keep pushing prices up, which will make homeownership even less attainable for first-time buyers or those with limited budgets, especially given that new homes have been incredibly hard to come by. Housing starts and new residential construction projects also fell 9.5% between March and April, and even though homebuilders have tried to increase their construction pace, it could take years to reduce the huge nationwide deficit of houses.
In one of the early indications that the lack of inventory is causing home sales to crash due to the exorbitant prices, sales of newly built homes dropped by 5.9% in April from March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 863,000, the Commerce Department reported. The Mortgage Bankers Association disclosed that its seasonally adjusted Purchase Index dropped 4.2% in the week ended May 21 from a week earlier, reflecting a 7.2% decline in applications for refinancing. For Ian Shepherdson of Pantheon Macroeconomics, the data underscores that the housing boom is reaching an end. “Over time, though - and usually not much time - new home sales gravitate to the pace implied by the trend in mortgage applications,” Shepherdson wrote. “So, absent any other reliable near-time indicators of the pace of sales, we have to expect a steep drop in April.”
The housing market pressures are being even more aggravated by growing inflation fears, as explained by Fannie Mae senior vice president and chief economist, Doug Duncan: "Stronger inflation and a resultant move in interest rates are risks that we believe should be monitored. As the effects of expansionary monetary policy continue to work their way through the economy, inflationary expectations may continue to rise. This could lead to prices rising further even with growth concurrently slowing in the presence of diminished labor market slack and waning fiscal policy support".
That's the same warning shared by experts with ZeroHedge. They argue that the lack of rising wages will fuel even higher prices. That will happen partially because pricing futures are taking into consideration temporary wage hikes employers have been offering to attract workers back into the labor market. However, as unemployment benefits expire in September, millions of currently unemployed workers are expected to make their way back into the labor force, which will send wages sharply lower given that instead of raising base payments, most employers only offer one-time bonuses.
The report also says that buying intentions, measured by the Conference Board, have plunged across the 3 major spending categories - homes, automobiles, and major household appliances. The drop was so massive, it amounted to the biggest one-month drop in intentions to purchase appliances, and homes. The vast majority of US consumers are getting increasingly tapped out, and considering homebuyer confidence has started to collapse, housing prices won't have anywhere else to go but down.
"What does that mean for the economy? Well, all those producers and retailers who got used to bumper demand and pushed their prices sharply higher, will face a stark choice: either drag prices right back down or sell far fewer goods and services," they wrote. As for the housing market, it means that no matter how much bubble deniers say today's fundamentals are different, prices will have to face a major correction as almost no one can afford them anymore. That is to say, there's essentially no way around the next housing market crash. As the experts highlighted - if anything this screams stagflation. And one thing is certain: six months from today, the US economy will be far, far uglier."
Musical Interlude: Medwyn Goodall, “Eyes of Heaven”
Full screen recommended.
Medwyn Goodall, “Eyes of Heaven”
"A Look to the Heavens"
“Separated by about 14 degrees (28 Full Moons) in planet Earth's sky, spiral galaxies M31 at left, and M33 are both large members of the Local Group, along with our own Milky Way galaxy. This narrow- and wide-angle, multi-camera composite finds details of spiral structure in both, while the massive neighboring galaxies seem to be balanced in starry fields either side of bright Mirach, beta star in the constellation Andromeda. Mirach is just 200 light-years from the Sun. But M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, is really 2.5 million light-years distant and M33, the Triangulum Galaxy, is also about 3 million light years away.
Although they look far apart, M31 and M33 are engaged in a gravitational struggle. In fact, radio astronomers have found indications of a bridge of neutral hydrogen gas that could connect the two, evidence of a closer encounter in the past. Based on measurements, gravitational simulations currently predict that the Milky Way, M31, and M33 will all undergo mutual close encounters and potentially mergers, billions of years in the future.”
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"Everything passes away- suffering, pain, blood, hunger, pestilence. The sword will pass away too, but the stars will still remain when the shadows of our presence and our deeds have vanished from the earth. There is no man who does not know that. Why, then, will we not turn our eyes towards the stars? Why?"
- Mikhail Bulgakov, "The White Guard"
"Anyone Who Isn't Confused..."
"Anyone who isn't confused really doesn't understand the situation."
- Edward R. Murrow
"Peak America"
"Peak America"
by Brian Maher
"Yawns on Wall Street today...The Dow Jones scratched out a light 10-point gain. The S&P gained seven; the Nasdaq, 80. The 10-year Treasury yield inched higher, gold inched lower. If it’s excitement you seek, Bitcoin gained 3% in today’s trading. But as we often note: The fleeting fancies of the market, its momentary moods, its passing passions, hold little fascination for us. They amuse us — to the verge of tears at times. Yet they do not fascinate us. It is the grand sweep that fascinates us... the long view... the view of the eagle high overhead. To everything there is a season, Ecclesiastes tells us...
The Four Seasons: In spring, the green saplings shoulder their way out of the earth. Buds form upon the trees. The days lengthen. It is the season of possibility. Summer is nature at high noon. It is green. Lush. The days are long; they are radiant… they are free of cares. Then fall descends…The first wrinkles of age appear. Summer’s greens go gray and the trees lose their hair. The first frosts arrive. Then comes winter… with its snow… its ice… its dark. It is the season of death.
Economies follow a similar cycle of seasons. They sprout, blossom, fade… and die.
Winter Closing In? The Daily Reckoning’s Charles Hugh Smith has argued winter may be closing in. Charles says the world is marked by “souring social mood, loss of purchasing power, stagnating wages, rising inequality, devaluing currencies, rising debt, political polarization and elite disunity.” “These are all characteristics,” Charles laments, “of the long-wave social-economic cycle that is entering the disintegrative (winter) phase.”
Is the economy entering winter? Charles leans on the work of historian Peter Turchin. Turchin explores historical cycles of social disintegration and integration over 50, 150 and 200-year cycles in his book "Ages of Discord." These cycles are as natural as the seasons — and perhaps as inevitable.
He identifies three primary forces spinning the disintegrative cycles: An oversupply of labor that suppresses real wages… an overproduction of parasitic elites… a deterioration in state finances. Do any of the three pertain to the United States?
Signs of Disintegration: Real American wages have remained largely flat for decades. Evidence suggests the bottom half of American adults earn no more than they did in the 1970s — in real terms. An overproduction of parasitic elites? Must we comment? A deterioration in state finances? The Treasury groans under a $28.3 trillion national debt that is growing… with each tick of the grandfather clock.
Meantime, unfunded liabilities such as Social Security and Medicare currently exceed $50 trillion by some estimates. $50 trillion liabilities cannot be met. They can only be repudiated in one form or another.
The one constant in this world of markets and men… is change. Today’s first violin is tomorrow’s second fiddle. Today’s top dog is tomorrow’s second banana. And vice versa. So it is with business. So it is with nations… and empires.
The Cycle of Empires: Ancient Athens attained high noon in the fifth century B.C. — “the Golden Age of Athens.” Athens had led a coalition of Greek city-states that defeated Persian invaders. It emerged king of the Hellenic world. The United States is not the first power in history to export democracy. Yet in time Athens began to heave its formidable weight around. Its former allies began seeking a balancing counterweight. They tied themselves up to Sparta. The 27-year Peloponnesian War that followed ultimately took Athens to its knees… and the Golden Age was no more.
What of Rome?
Obituary of Empire: Rome attained zenith in the second century A.D., under the emperor Trajan. Rome’s shadow covered Britain in the northwest, Mesopotamia in the east, North Africa in the south — and all points between them. To what city did all roads lead? That is correct. But the civilizational sinews ultimately weakened… a corrupting rot seeped into the marrows… and Rome began losing its purchase upon the world. Barbarians ultimately breached the walls. Rome fell in 476.
Now come forward a bit…The British Empire, on which the sun never set — and on which the blood never dried — reached high noon in 1914, before the Great War. It would never reclaim it.
The Soviet Empire saw its market cap peak in the 1970s — then collapse to zero on Christmas Day, 1991.
Turning now to these United States. Has high noon come… and has high noon gone?
Peak America: We estimate America attained its zenith during the 1990s. Its victory over communism marked the “end of history.” America bestrode the world like an overtowering Colossus. But history began anew on Sept. 11, 2001. America has been hemorrhaging market share ever since… In Afghanistan — the graveyard of empires — in Iraq, Libya, Syria.
America’s 'mission civilisatrice' to spread democracy the world over now appears a grotesque jest. It exports a bankrupt currency. The world watched American cities burn last summer. The world watched the statues coming down. In November, the world witnessed an American presidential election soaked through with allegations of fraud. In January, it watched thousands and thousands of furious protestors barrel their way into the United States Capitol, sending congressmen scurrying under the bed. If this is democracy, said the world, please count us out — thank you all the same.
Look in the Mirror! Columnist Fred Reed: "The whole world can see, in what calls itself the richest country in the world, squalid, diseased, often rat-infested encampments of tens of thousands the homeless on the sidewalks of city after city: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Austin, on and on. In New York they live in subway stations, often on the trains. Forgotten diseases return. This must cause astonishment in civilized countries such as Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan…
Next, crime, levels of which constitute a measure of civilization. American lawlessness is a wonder of the world. Over seven hundred killed annually in Chicago, three hundred in Baltimore, with perhaps three times as many shot but not killed. Similar numbers per capita can be adduced for many other cities. Equally elevated figures exist for assault, rape, carjacking, mugging, shoplifting. To citizens of Taiwan or South Korea these numbers must look more appropriate to civil war in Sudan than a country that regards itself as an example to the world…
Public disaffection is rampant in America. Washington is so afraid of its citizens that it called in over twenty thousand soldiers to assure calm when Biden was inaugurated. The whole earth watched, some in shock, others in amusement, as infuriated citizens stormed the Capitol. During a recent trial in Minneapolis troops were needed to protect the proceedings from an angry population, with stores boarding up in fear of looting. Can anyone imagine this in Tokyo?"
We could continue. But our patriotic honor forbids it… and we sob over America’s sinking prestige. Even Venezuela, Russia and China razz the United States for its derangements. The pots call the kettle black of course — and then some. But can the kettle plead truly innocent?
Consuetudo Fraudium: It is fashionable in some quarters to compare the present United States to ancient Rome. The comparisons are often overwrought. Often — but maybe not always. Rome had its spring. It had its summer, its fall… and then its winter. The seasons glided one into the next so easily, scarcely anyone noticed.
From "The Empire of Debt," co-written by our founders Addison Wiggin and Bill Bonner: "In Rome, the institutions evolved and degraded faster than people’s ideas about them. Romans remembered their Old Republic with its rules and customs. They still thought that was the way the system was supposed to work long after a new system of consuetudo fraudium — habitual cheating — had taken hold… As time went on, the empire came to resemble less and less the Old Republic that gave it birth. The old virtues were replaced with new vices." We cannot help but think of these United States as we reflect upon these lines.
Indispensable? Our nation shows many of the same telltales, in ways large and small. But we are cynical by nature. And a man sees what he expects to see, even if it horrifies him. We cannot truly identify America’s present season. Perhaps it is in a disguised spring. But we have our jacket and gloves ready… just in case.
And is America the indispensable nation? Here we modify a phrase about indispensable men — and it pains us mightily to announce it — however: The graveyard is filled with indispensable nations…"
“There Is No Reality Anymore…”
“There Is No Reality Anymore…”
by Thad Beversdorf
“I‘d love to change the world, but I don‘t know what to do,
so I’ll leave it up to you…” *
“What a great lyric that is from the late 60′s, early 70′s English band “10 Years After.” I believe this describes that uneasy feeling of discontent that sits deep in the stomach, beneath the day to day exteriors, of so many people today. The world is like a black hole in that it seems to be getting smaller and smaller as the years go by but also heavier and heavier with each passing day.
When I was a teenager and my friends and I were taking reality obscuring substances, one of my buddies (this means you Nichol) would stop us at certain points throughout the night for a reality check. This was just a few moments where we ‘d all gather our senses to make sure the world was still right and then we’d venture back into obscurity. I feel that reality is an old world term. There is no reality anymore. With advances in technology came unending possibilities of if you can dream it they can make it so. The ubiquitous flow of information ensures that the truth is always available but never known with certainty. It means there is no such thing as a reality check. It’s like that dream inside a dream inside a dream. Which reality is real anymore? How deep does the rabbit hole go?
We are raised with pretty standard ideals of what the world is meant to be but these ideals seem to take place only in the movies. It must be incredibly difficult for our young people to reconcile the two worlds, I know it is for me. That which they learn as a child and that which they find has replaced it as a young adult. Our leaders are despicable, arrogant and egotistical fools who pretend we elect them because we don’t see them for what they are. But we elect them because we feel we have no choice. We know what we want the world to be. We know what it should look and feel like. And we know it is not the world in which we live today. I know I’d love to change the world but I don’t know how and so I’ll leave it up to you. And so we continue to move forward down this path, each step uneasy as though something ungood is lurking just around the next corner.
We are able to put that feeling out of our minds for the most part but our subconscious is always aware that things are off. We have all kinds of self help books and new age theories that attempt to make sense of it all and explain why we just aren t happy the way we envision happy should be. Perhaps the only reality is the reality that the world isn’t what we had hoped it would be and we don’t know how to make that right. I’d love to say that if we just stand up and do the right thing, act from our hearts and have good intentions that it could change the world. But quite honestly there are ill-intentioned people that are constructing this new world in which we sub-exist.It is them and us, but they’d never say it that way. Certainly though their intention is not for us to co-exist along side them.
But so we carry on and we, move forward, to the best of our abilities. We accept the good with the bad and acknowledge that everything is a trade off. We believe that if we go to college we stand a better chance in life and so we borrow our first 10 years of post college wages to get an edge over the next guy who is doing the same. When we get out of school we know that it is time to buckle down and get serious. We put our lives on hold in order to focus on the future with the idea that one day we will be sitting on the porch with the person we love, the one we put on hold for all those years, and we will then enjoy our life’s work then.
But then we get further in debt because we need a sleeker car and we need a bigger house but it’s ok because we can just work a little more. And then the kids come and as far as we got to know them they are great, I think. But it’s ok because they just finished college and now they’ve moved back in as the job market is tough out there and so we’re paying off their student loans. Eventually they get away and begin their life’s journey and they take their debt with them. And then we realize, god I’m almost 60. But it feels great because that means soon I’ll be there on the porch getting to know the one I love again and life will be grand at that point.
But then we turn 65 and we realize all those policies that were implemented by all those well-intentioned decision makers have actually left us with very little. And we say it’s ok because we’d be bored anyway just sitting on the porch. And so we take a job waving at people in Walmart but feel like OMG how did I get here. But the shift ends and we go home anxious to spend time with the one we love because, although it’s a terrible thought, we are aware we’re both getting long in the tooth. And so we arrive home only to realize the one we love is now sick and that it’s too late for our days sitting on the porch getting to know each other again. We do everything we can but we cannot afford to help that person who stood quietly behind us all those years as healthcare costs are unrealistically out of touch with reality . And then it hits us that despite taking all the right steps to ensure we have a great life we failed to ever really be happy, to really love and to really accept love. And then it really hits us, this world provides but one shot.
Well, then that feeling of uneasy discontent that shadowed us when we were young is now an intense pain in our heart. And we look out at the world and we ask ourselves how could this have happened? I did everything they told me I was supposed to do, I did everything right! And it becomes clear that life was a chance to change the world, but we didn’t know what to do, and so we left it up to…”
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*Ten Years After, “I’d Love To Change The World”
“Stockdale Paradox: How It Can Help You Survive the Worst”
“Stockdale Paradox:
How It Can Help You Survive the Worst”
By Janey Davies, B.A.
“Would you describe yourself as an optimist or a pessimist? Perhaps you’re more of an idealist? Maybe you think it’s important to see the reality of a situation? In any case, is it better to be one or the other? The Stockdale Paradox states that a mixture of realism and optimism is the best way forward.
What Is the Stockdale Paradox and Who Was James Stockdale? The Stockdale paradox is named after the high-ranking naval officer Admiral James Stockdale. Stockdale fought in the Vietnam War and, unfortunately, was captured by the Viet Cong. He was held prisoner from 1965 to 1973. During this time, he underwent some of the most brutal torture ever inflicted during a conflict; all whilst living in subhuman conditions. But Stockdale survived. Not because he was an unwavering optimist, or, indeed, a naïve idealist. Stockdale lived to tell his horrific tale because he managed to deal with the realism of his appalling situation with a small measure of optimism.
Life in Prison During the Vietnam War: Out-matched by America’s great show of military strength, Vietnamese guards took a different tactic. They set about staging a propaganda war instead. They captured thousands of US soldiers and brutalized many into ‘confessing’ the bombings of school children and homes of civilians. Guards filmed US prisoners denouncing the US government in humiliating videos.
So why did Jim Stockdale survive whereas others didn’t? In an interview, he said: “I never lost faith in the end of the story. I never doubted not only that I would get out, but also that I would prevail in the end and turn the experience into the defining event of my life, which in retrospect, I would not trade.”
He was asked ‘Who didn’t survive?’ “Oh, that’s easy,” he said. “The optimists.” The interviewer pressed Stockdale for more details. “The optimists. Oh, they were the ones who said, ‘We’re going to be out by Christmas.’ And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they’d say, ‘We’re going to be out by Easter.’ And Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart.”
Stockdale’s Role as a POW in Vietnam: American POWs endured appalling conditions in the prison camps. Routinely shackled to beds by their legs with ironclads, these metal shackles were extremely tight and led to infections and sores. For days on end, prisoners were left to lie in their own feces and urine.
Vietnam guards tortured Stockdale over twenty times. One form of torture was the rope trick. Prisoners would have their hands cuffed behind their backs, then guards would use ropes to rotate their arms up until their elbows and shoulders popped out of their sockets. Guards would hang prisoners up for hours, days even. During this time prisoner’s arms would turn purple through lack of blood. Sometimes guard would hogtie a prisoner’s arms and legs together then string them up from a meat hook. Returning at regulars intervals, guards would tighten the ropes until the prisoners had no feeling left in their limbs. Arms and legs would balloon to twice their normal size.
Remember, these were prisoners with infections and injuries from the war or previous torture. So they were already gravely ill before these hanging sessions. And torture sessions would go on for hours, in some cases even days.
One such inmate of a notorious POW camp, known as the Hanoi Hilton, is Congressman Sam Johnson. He described the torture in an interview: “As a POW in the Hanoi Hilton, I could recall nothing from military survival training that explained the use of a meat hook suspended from the ceiling. It would hang above you in the torture room like a sadistic tease – you couldn’t drag your gaze from it.” How do you survive such mental and physical torture with no end in sight?
How Stockdale Survived the POW Camps: Jim Stockdale knew that no one could survive endless torture, either physically or mentally. So he devised a step-by-step system of rules that would help. For instance, he advised prisoners to endure x number of minutes, then give away some information. This gave the prisoners a system to work from. In fact, Stockdale was instrumental in organizing his fellow inmates. He invented an elaborate communication system so that isolated prisoners could feel connected.
Slashing his body with a razor and beating himself bloody with a stool, Stockdale knew the guards would not videotape him as propaganda for the Vietnamese war effort. He taught prisoners a simple code of blinking Morse Code when they were videotaped for propaganda purposes. Now prisoners have a modicum of hope that their messages were getting out.
So where did Stockdale get his incredible resilience from? Was it his training in the Navy? Actually, Stockdale took inspiration from philosophy. He remembered quotes from the famed Stoic Epictetus: “Men are disturbed not by things, but by the views which they take of things.” “It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.”
A Matter of Free Will: Stockdale realized that despite his capture and subsequent imprisonment, he still had the capacity for free will. Although he couldn’t change what was happening to him, he could control how he reacted to it all. And that’s different from hoping things will turn out okay in the end. It is being proactive but also realistic about the situation. There are the factors you can control, for instance, your reaction to imprisonment and torture.
Then there are other factors you cannot control, such as liberation. Stockdale knew that to survive this horrific experience, he could not have ‘faith’ that things would turn out alright in the end. Because, dash this faith, time and time again, and there was no knowing if his mental state would ever recover from the sheer disappointment. Instead, he confronted head-on the desperation and brutality of his situation and devised methods to deal with the worst of them.
So What Does Stockdale Paradox Teach Us? So how does the Stockdale Paradox help us today? I’ll let Jim Stockdale answer that question: “You have to have faith that you will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties, and at the same time, must confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.” In other words, a healthy dose of realism along with a measure of optimism is the best way through any difficult situation.”
"I Want Better..."
“People ask me to predict the future, when all I want to do is prevent it. Better yet, build it. Predicting the future is much too easy, anyway. You look at the people around you, the street you stand on, the visible air you breathe, and predict more of the same. To hell with more. I want better.”
- Ray Bradbury
"Zombies Everywhere"
"Zombies Everywhere"
By Bill Bonner
YOUGHAL, IRELAND – "Yesterday, we promised a “reveal.” Why do empires collapse? And why do economies decay? Keeping it all very simple… A society prospers or declines depending on how much of its vitality is engaged in providing useful goods and services… compared to how much is spent grifting… stealing… politicking… and wasting time and savings on zombie companies, wars, and dead-end investments. And appearances can be misleading…
Complete Disaster: In the early days of the Third Reich, for example, many observers thought the German economy would be a good model for the rest of the world. Coming out of a catastrophic hyperinflation in the early 1920s… and after dragging the burden of reparations like a ball and chain… Germany nevertheless rebounded smartly in the 1930s. Suddenly, everyone was working and every industrial chimney was belching smoke.
But it was a fraud. The German economy had been hijacked by warmongers – drafted in to support Hitler’s fantasies of world domination. Instead of making passenger cars, it was tanks that rolled off the assembly lines. Instead of making commercial airliners, they built fighter jets and bombers. Instead of growing wheat and vegetables for their families… German laborers were needed on the Eastern Front! In the 1940s, when the unemployment rate in Nazi Germany went to zero… workers were forcibly recruited from France and Poland. By then, Germany was “investing” more than half its entire GDP in the war effort. We all know what these “investments” produced – a complete disaster, for Germany as well as her neighbors.
Impaired Judgment: As a general rule, the more of a society’s energy is “invested” by government (rather than by private investors with a profit motive), the lower the return. Government “investments” are more likely to be either disguised transfer payments… or worse, megalomaniacal crackpottery. In either case, the real return on investment is typically below zero.
Over the last two weeks, we’ve noticed that many private investments can also be unproductive. When fake money is handed out like free booze, it’s bound to lead to some impaired judgment. At its recent peak, the cryptocurrency market was worth $2.4 trillion. And of America’s top 1,500 companies, 200 of them – with a combined market value of $2.3 trillion – haven’t made a profit in three years. Cryptos aren’t designed to provide products or services. And money-losing companies subtract wealth; they don’t add it. Together, that is nearly $5 trillion of zombie capital. (Much of it will disappear in the next crash.)
Connecting the Dots: But how can we connect these dots? The misguided investments… the idle minds… the goofball spending? For the first time in the history of economics – you are the first to see it, Dear Reader – we unveil our Zombie Index (ZI).
Remember, when people can work, save, invest, and innovate – without interference – they prosper. But when people are distracted, detained, bamboozled, or otherwise prevented from carrying on with their projects, the society gets poorer. And now, our impression is that the zombies are many… They are breeding like rabbits. We think that explains why U.S. GDP growth rates are now at their lowest levels since the Great Depression. Let us see if our hypothesis is true.
The U.S. labor force participation rate hit 67% in 2000. Now, it’s down to below 62%. That’s about 7 million more zombies right there. This year, there are about 260 million adults in the U.S. But, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 151 million are “employed.” That leaves 109 million zombies.
An important nuance: There is nothing wrong, morally, with being a zombie. Old people. Sick people. Children. Prisoners. Malingerers… lazy bums… and crypto day traders. Zombies are not necessarily good or bad. But they must eat. And since they do not produce, they must eat what others produce.
We hasten to let ourselves… and many dear readers off the hook… adding that a retired person, living off his own accumulated savings, is not a zombie at all. He earned the money… and merely delayed spending it. But that kind of fine tuning of our Zombie Index will have to wait for someone with more than half an hour to think about it. Grossissimo modo, our Zombie Index tells us what percentage of the population is producing wealth… and what part is consuming it. Generally, (this is in no way to be confused with science) the more zombies you have… the lower the wealth of the society.
Government Zombies: But wait… What about all the people employed by the government? Some, such as firefighters and teachers, do useful work that we would gladly pay for. Most do not.
Optimistically, let us say that 80% of government employees are “zombies.” In 2020, there were about 22.5 million on state, local, and federal government payrolls. So we take 80% of these “employed” people – about 18 million – and move them over to the zombie side of the street. It should be added that there are millions more who are honestly employed in the private sector… but who still do zombie work. Accountants preparing tax returns, lawyers… lobbyists… diversity commissars… and millions of others… do not really add to our wealth. But that calculation is far beyond the scope of this little reverie.
So is the fact that many people – in and out of government – not only fail to add to output, they actively try to reduce it… by imposing regulations, paperwork, skullduggery, and claptrappery – such as the Federal Reserve’s zero interest rates. As they say in France… “Half the population works; the other half tries to stop them.”
Final Tally: So, putting the numbers together… out of 332 million people in America, approximately 199 million (109 million unemployed + 18 million “zombie” government employees + 72 million non-adults = 199 million) – 60% of all Americans – are zombified. To these simple numbers we add another important measure. In 2000, state, local, and federal governments together – the biggest source of zombieism – spent an amount equal to 34% of GDP, or about 1 out of every 3 dollars. Today, the number is 44%. That represents a huge gain for the zombies. And it completes our Zombie Index as follows…
We add the two ratios together – 60% and 44% – and divide by two, giving us our final Zombie Index reading of 52%… or just over the half-way mark. The French are right! Half the people work; the other half get in their way. For reference, the Zombie Index for the year 2000 would have been about 45%, which confirms our impression: The zombies are multiplying. Regards,"
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