Jeremiah Babe, PM 8/13/21:
"Hyperinflation Next, Then The Greatest Depression 2.0"
So, we rise from the rubble...
Friday, August 13, 2021
"The Greatest Stock Market Bubble In Financial History Is About To Burst"
Full screen recommended.
"The Greatest Stock Market Bubble
In Financial History Is About To Burst"
by Epic Economist
"Amid one of the craziest bull runs in stock markets in all of our history, calling out a bubble can be quite scary for many investors, but not for Jeremy Grantham. In a frenetic era of meme stocks, cryptocurrencies, and bidding wars, most people tend to overlook the risks and focus on the promise of future gains. However, there is an imminent and growing danger that this unprecedented mania might end up triggering the greatest stock market crash ever recorded. That's what the chairman of the board of famed asset managers GMO has been warning, stressing that we're in the middle of the greatest financial bubble ever seen. Grantham, an experienced investor who spent decades analyzing how bubbles are formed, has lived through and called numerous modern booms and bursts, including the dot-com crash in 2000, the market peak in 2008, and the market collapse of 2009. Now, he says that we're headed to a similar fate.
To identify a bubble, it doesn't take much, he argues. You can see something is terminally wrong in the market when it makes the front pages instead of the financial pages when the news is full of stories of people getting cheated when new coins are being created every month. "The scale of these things is so much bigger than in 1929 or 2000," he stresses. The current stock market bubble has been fueled by artificial government policies that led many investors to believe overvalued assets could be justified by a booming economy. But as Grantham highlights, the economy isn't actually booming because there was no real growth in production, and very soon investors will have to confront that reality. And when they do, things will start to rapidly change in the market, leading this bubble to an epic burst.
Grantham believes that the next stock market crash will cause an enormous negative wealth effect, bigger than it has ever been, compared to any other previous bubble burst. "It's the first time we have bubbled in so many different areas – interest rates, stocks, housing, non-energy commodities. On the way up, it gave us all a positive wealth effect, and on the way down it will retract, painfully," he warns. "This bubble is the real thing, and everyone can see it. It's as obvious as the nose on your face. Today, it is clear to me that this is the most dangerous package of overpriced assets we have ever seen in the US,” says Jim Grant, describing that we have the most overpriced fixed-income market in the history of the world.
At this point, bubbles are emerging everywhere. Housing, equity, bonds, stocks, crypto. If they simultaneously crash, as most economists predict they will, this will undoubtedly be the sharpest collective loss of wealth ever recorded. That's why, Grantham is sounding the alarm to the greatest bubble in financial history, warning investors that history is about to repeat itself, and this time, the stage is set for an apocalyptic financial meltdown.
Sharing a similarly dire forecast, finance, and economic expert, Alasdair Macleod, affirms that one of the biggest catalysts to the coming inflationary collapse were government policies that recklessly expanded our money supply, downgraded our living standards, our currency, and left Americans struggling with runaway inflation in that process.
The expert emphasizes that “this has gotten to a point where we can’t go any further. We are at the top of the bubble. What happens when this market tops out? The dollar goes down with it”. Macleod adds to the predictions that the everything bubble burst is fast approaching: “Look at the fundamentals in the economy. They are talking about economic recovery, but look at all the shops that are closed and never to be reopened. This is not a healthy economy. This is a very bad economy. The reason why prices are rising is you’ve got all this money being put into the consumers’ hands. This is the middle class here, and they are spending this money, and where is the production to satisfy the spending? It’s not there, it’s closed down. There is no solution. We are getting to the point that there is actually no exit from this mess,” he warned. A financial disaster of unprecedented proportions seems just a matter of time. With so much debt, and so little resilience, our over-leveraged financial system is doomed to face a reckoning and everyone that have seen this happening before is telling us right now that conditions in the markets are increasingly unsustainable. Those who have chosen to ignore the dark clouds that rising on the horizon will soon find themselves amidst the most devastating financial catastrophe of our lifetime."
"A Look to the Heavens"
“What powers are being wielded in the Wizard Nebula? Gravitation strong enough to form stars, and stellar winds and radiations powerful enough to create and dissolve towers of gas. Located only 8,000 light years away, the Wizard nebula, pictured above, surrounds developing open star cluster NGC 7380. Visually, the interplay of stars, gas, and dust has created a shape that appears to some like a fictional medieval sorcerer.
The active star forming region spans 100 about light years, making it appear larger than the angular extent of the Moon. The Wizard Nebula can be located with a small telescope toward the constellation of the King of Aethiopia (Cepheus) Although the nebula may last only a few million years, some of the stars being formed may outlive our Sun.”
Chet Raymo, “Telling Stories”
“Telling Stories”
by Chet Raymo
"When the pulse of the first day carried it to the rim of night, First Woman said to First Man, "The people need to know the laws. To help them we must write the laws for all to see"... And so she began, slowly, first one and then the next, placing her jewels across the dome of night, carefully designing her pattern so all could read it. But Coyote grew bored watching First Woman carefully arranging the stars in the sky: Impatiently he gathered two corners of First Woman's blanket, and before she could stop him he flung the remaining stars out into the night, spilling them in wild disarray, shattering First Woman's careful patterns."
This episode from the Navajo creation story of is from "How the Stars Fell Into the Sky", a children's book by Jerrie Oughton. It is a lovely story, full of ancient wisdom. For centuries, Navajo children heard the story at an elder's knee. The story was taken literally, or at least accepted with a willing suspension of disbelief. I heard a similar creation story in my youth - of Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and the Serpent. I accepted the story with a willing suspension of disbelief.
All cultures, everywhere on Earth, have stories, passed down in scriptures, traditions or tribal myths, that answer the questions: Where did the world come from? What is our place in it? What is the source of order and disorder? What will be the fate of the world? Of ourselves? No people can live without a community story. The problem comes when the community story becomes so disconnected from empirical experience that it no longer commands a suspension of disbelief. For many of us in the West, that is the case with the creation stories that have undergirded Western civilization.
Today, a New Story exists for those who choose to accept it. It is the product of thousands of years of human curiosity, observation, experimentation, and creativity. It is an evolving story, not yet finished. Perhaps it will never be finished. It is a story that begins with an explosion from a seed of infinite energy. The seed expands and cools. Particles form, then atoms of hydrogen and helium. Stars and galaxies coalesce from swirling gas. Stars burn and explode, forging heavy elements - carbon, nitrogen, oxygen - and hurling them into space. New stars are born, with planets made of heavy elements.
On one planet near a typical star in a typical galaxy life appears in the form of microscopic self-replicating, carbon-based ensembles of atoms. Life evolves, over billions of years, resulting in ever more complex organisms. Continents move. Seas rise and fall. The atmosphere changes. Millions of species of life appear and become extinct. Others adapt, survive, and spill out progeny. At last, consciousness appears. One of the millions of species on the planet looks into the night sky and wonders what it means. Feels the spark of love, tenderness, responsibility. Makes up stories - of First Woman and Coyote, of Adam, Eve and the Serpent - eventually making up the New Story. The New Story places us squarely in a cosmic unfolding of space and time, and teaches our biological affinity to all humanity. We are inextricably related to all of life, to the planet itself, and even to the lives of stars.
This episode from the Navajo creation story of is from "How the Stars Fell Into the Sky", a children's book by Jerrie Oughton. It is a lovely story, full of ancient wisdom. For centuries, Navajo children heard the story at an elder's knee. The story was taken literally, or at least accepted with a willing suspension of disbelief. I heard a similar creation story in my youth - of Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and the Serpent. I accepted the story with a willing suspension of disbelief.
All cultures, everywhere on Earth, have stories, passed down in scriptures, traditions or tribal myths, that answer the questions: Where did the world come from? What is our place in it? What is the source of order and disorder? What will be the fate of the world? Of ourselves? No people can live without a community story. The problem comes when the community story becomes so disconnected from empirical experience that it no longer commands a suspension of disbelief. For many of us in the West, that is the case with the creation stories that have undergirded Western civilization.
Today, a New Story exists for those who choose to accept it. It is the product of thousands of years of human curiosity, observation, experimentation, and creativity. It is an evolving story, not yet finished. Perhaps it will never be finished. It is a story that begins with an explosion from a seed of infinite energy. The seed expands and cools. Particles form, then atoms of hydrogen and helium. Stars and galaxies coalesce from swirling gas. Stars burn and explode, forging heavy elements - carbon, nitrogen, oxygen - and hurling them into space. New stars are born, with planets made of heavy elements.
On one planet near a typical star in a typical galaxy life appears in the form of microscopic self-replicating, carbon-based ensembles of atoms. Life evolves, over billions of years, resulting in ever more complex organisms. Continents move. Seas rise and fall. The atmosphere changes. Millions of species of life appear and become extinct. Others adapt, survive, and spill out progeny. At last, consciousness appears. One of the millions of species on the planet looks into the night sky and wonders what it means. Feels the spark of love, tenderness, responsibility. Makes up stories - of First Woman and Coyote, of Adam, Eve and the Serpent - eventually making up the New Story. The New Story places us squarely in a cosmic unfolding of space and time, and teaches our biological affinity to all humanity. We are inextricably related to all of life, to the planet itself, and even to the lives of stars.
It has been the task of many of us gathered here on this cyber porch to help wed the New Story to the spiritual quest, to create what Thomas Berry calls an "integral story." In his introduction to Kathleen Deignan's collection of Thomas Merton's nature writing, Berry writes: "Today, in the opening years of the twenty-first century, we find ourselves in a critical moment when the religious traditions need to awaken again to the natural world as the primary manifestation of the divine to human intelligence. The very nature and purpose of the human is to experience this intimate presence that comes to us through natural phenomena. Such is the purpose of having eyes and ears and feeling sensitivity, and all our other senses. We have no inner spiritual development without outer experience. Immediately, when we see or experience any natural phenomenon, when we see a flower, a butterfly, a tree, when we feel the evening breeze flow over us or wade in a stream of clear water, our natural response is immediate, intuitive, transforming, ecstatic. Everywhere we find ourselves invaded by the world of the sacred."
Berry reminds us that we will neither love nor save what we do not experience as sacred. The older creation stories locate the source of the sacred outside of the creation. The New Story, the scientific story of creation, provides unique opportunities to experience the creation itself as holy and good.
We should treasure the ancient stories for the wisdom and values they teach us. We can praise the creation in whatever poetic languages and rituals our traditional cultures have taught us. But only the New Story has the global authority to help us navigate the future. Of all the stories, it is certainly the truest. It is the only story whose feet have been held to the fire of exacting empirical experience.”
The Poet: William Stafford, "You Reading This, Be Ready"
"You Reading This, Be Ready"
"Starting here, what do you want to remember?
How sunlight creeps along a shining floor?
What scent of old wood hovers, what softened
sound from outside fills the air?
Will you ever bring a better gift for the world
than the breathing respect that you carry
wherever you go right now? Are you waiting
for time to show you some better thoughts?
When you turn around, starting here, lift this
new glimpse that you found; carry into evening
all that you want from this day. This interval you spent
reading or hearing this, keep it for life.
What can anyone give you greater than now,
starting here, right in this room, when you turn around?"
- William Stafford
"A Sad Fact..."
"A sad fact, of course, about adult life is that you see the very things you'll never adapt to coming toward you on the horizon. You see them as the problems they are, you worry like hell about them, you make provisions, take precautions, fashion adjustments; you tell yourself you'll have to change your way of doing things. Only you don't. You can't. Somehow it's already too late. And maybe it's even worse than that: maybe the thing you see coming from far away is not the real thing, the thing that scares you, but its aftermath. And what you've feared will happen has already taken place. This is similar in spirit to the realization that all the great new advances of medical science will have no benefit for us at all, thought we cheer them on, hope a vaccine might be ready in time, think things could still get better. Only it's too late there too. And in that very way our life gets over before we know it. We miss it. And like the poet said: The ways we miss our lives are life."
- Richard Ford
"Don't Wonder..."
"Don't wonder why people go crazy. Wonder why they don't.
In the face of what we can lose in a day, in an instant,
wonder what the hell it is that makes us hold it together."
- "Grey's Anatomy"
"Return Of The Wolfman"
"Return Of The Wolfman"
by Bill Bonner
"Homo homini lupus."
– Latin proverb, meaning “Man is wolf to man.”
POITOU, FRANCE – "We saw a strange beast early this morning. Driving to the train station, an animal slouched onto the road ahead of us. At first, we thought it was a wild boar. There are a lot of them in the area. Then, it saw us coming and dashed back into the woods. But it was taller and longer than the typical boar, and it moved more like a dog than a pig. “It was a wolf,” concluded a neighbor. “We found one dead on the railroad tracks a few months ago. They’re all over France now.”
In the mid-20th century, this area became a major producer of sheep. But only after wolves were exterminated. Now, with the wolf making a comeback, will the sheep be next to go? Readers may want to keep that in mind… as we consider the affairs of men in the next few hundred words. In short, the wolfman is back…
Lunar Lunacy: Usually, civilized life goes on in a give-and-take, live-and-let-live kind of fashion. But sometimes, when the moon is full, people go a little mad; they grow furry ears and long teeth. That’s what happened in the early 20th century… first with the Bolsheviks… then the National Socialists (Nazis). In each case, a determined group – often very small at the beginning – believed that it had the one and only TRUTH… and that all others must bend to it. Or else…
Then, as the howling grows louder, and the predators get control of the government, other groups are eager to join. The media is first; it wishes to be part of the glorious new future. Politicians, bureaucrats, opinion mongers, view shapers – none wants to be left behind. Religious groups and nonprofits join the pack; they begin to see how the new faith connects to their old one. And business – partly trying to protect itself… and partly trying to gain special privileges – soon takes its place among the beasts.
Even ordinary people, who might otherwise get on with their own honest and dignified lives, are inspired to snarl and yelp. And then, the whole lot of them are headed for trouble. And now, as the moon grows brighter… is that a dog we hear… or a wolf?
Cancel Culture: Let us begin with the supposition that almost everything we hear in the news is either a lie or a fraud. Of course, we will be wrong occasionally, but probably not often. The public has better things to do (idly scrolling through Facebook!) than trying to understand the issues in any depth. Besides, reporters are too lazy – and have little incentive – to dig beneath the popular narrative to find out what is really going on. And anyone who dares try to put forward a contrary view is quickly censured.
Recall that Donald Trump – who won more votes than any Republican in history – was cut off from Twitter; the company didn’t like his views of the election results. (Note that we offer no opinion as to the election results themselves… We just call attention to the extraordinary situation in which a major public figure is censured for his views.)
Just in the last few days, Senator Rand Paul was cut off from YouTube after he cited studies critical of mask mandates… and blasted the censors for cutting others off. The video sharing platform also tried to remove Dr. Dan Stock’s speech on the virus to the Mount Vernon Community School Corporation in Indiana after it went viral. That is to say, YouTube tried to take it down because people wanted to see it… and because it had the wrong point of view.
You might say, “YouTube is a private company. It can do what it wants.” Which is perfectly okay with us, too. We’re just exploring a phenomenon here, not arguing about the law. If we’re right, America’s “private” sector and its most important institutions have been corrupted by public sector money. The press asks no “hardball” questions. The universities no longer teach people how to think; they teach them WHAT to think. Businesses have figured out that it’s the feds who butter their bread.
Preposterous Policies: Returning to the legal issue, last year, Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz made the remarkable claim that people “have no right not to be vaccinated.” What kind of Brave New World is this? People have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, but not to decide what is put into their bodies? What kind of world is it where private companies act as censors for the feds?
And how come the press goes along with some of the most intrusive and preposterous government policies in history – the trillion-dollar deficits… stimmy checks… the invasion of Iraq… the COVID-19 shutdowns…?
Real Mischief: Yes, Dear Reader, people seem to go mad from time to time. And now, you can start a war and kill thousands of women… and then go on to a comfortable retirement berth as an elder statesman (George Bush Jnr.). But pinch just one woman (or more) on the derrière, and your career is sunk (Andrew Cuomo).
You can tell all the lies you want (Petraeus, Flynn, Milley, Mattis, et al.)… and move on to a rich reward at Raytheon or Lockheed Martin… but tell the truth just once, and you’ll go to jail (former National Security Agency intelligence analyst Daniel Hale).
You can print trillions of fake dollars and you will become the most admired public servant since Pontius Pilate (Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell)…but try to pass off just one fake $20 bill, and the police will kill you (George Floyd).
The media condemned Floyd’s killer – even before trial! – but it never once raised doubts about the system that was fatal to him. Instead, it went after the soft target – the alleged “racism” of others, the Trumpian white trash – and gave a pass to the furry elite’s real mischief – militarizing the police… the War on Drugs… the War on Poverty… punishing savers… eliminating good-paying jobs… and shifting $30 trillion to itself by backstopping the stock market and funding its pet projects.
Today, we come to no conclusion. We just note that the moon, big and yellow already, is waxing…and trouble is afoot."
Gregory Mannarino, "AM/PM 8/13/21: Critical Updates"
Gregory Mannarino, AM 8/13/21:
"Critical Updates"
Gregory Mannarino, PM 8/13/21:
"MELTDOWN 2.0: Artificial Liquidity Is Fueling
The System In An Attempt To Push Off A CREDIT FREEZE"
"I Feel Like I Am Living In Crazytown"
"I Feel Like I Am Living In Crazytown"
by Michael Snyder
"We haven’t had an extended bout of painful inflation like this since the days of the Carter administration, and our leaders in Washington have decided that the best way forward is to rapidly create even more inflation. They keep using words like “transitory” to describe the current inflation crisis, but then they turn right around and talk about the need to create, borrow and spend even more money. It is utter madness, but at this point there is nobody that is going to stop them. We are all passengers on a “highway to Weimar”, and those that have their hands on the wheel have gone completely nuts.
On Wednesday, we learned that on a year-over-year basis inflation continues to rise at the fastest pace that we have seen since the last financial crisis… "Federal data released on Wednesday showed that for the 12 months through July, the consumer price index rose 5.4 percent, unchanged from June and at the highest level since the Great Recession in 2008."
But since the way that the rate of inflation is calculated has literally been changed dozens of times over the decades, the only way to get an apples for apples comparison is to calculate what the rate of inflation would be if it was still calculated the same way it was at some previous moment in our history. John Williams of shadowstats.com has done just that. According to Williams, if inflation was still calculated the same way it was back in 1990, we would be at about 9 percent at this moment. And if inflation was still calculated the same way it was back in 1980, we would be way into double digits right now.
Many Americans had assumed that we would never again see the sort of crazy inflation that we witnessed during the Carter years, but now it is here. In particular, food prices, gas prices and vehicle prices are rapidly becoming quite painful… "New vehicle prices rose 6.4 percent on the year, the largest 12-month increase since the period ending January 1982. Gasoline was also up 42 percent.
The prices of many everyday items have jumped sharply in the past year. Bacon was up 11 percent and whole milk and beef roast were both 8 percent higher on the year.
Travel expenses jumped hugely from last summer’s depressed base level, with hotels up 24 percent and airfare up 19 percent."
Needless to say, this is having a substantial impact on our standard of living. Even though wages are rising, they aren’t rising nearly as fast as the cost of living is… "It is getting harder and harder for American workers to make ends meet as rising inflation outpaces pay gains, pushing down inflation-adjusted compensation at a pace almost never seen before. Adjusted for inflation, hourly compensation fell 2.7 percent in the second quarter, data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on the nonfarm business sector showed Tuesday."
Inflation is a tax on all of us, and it is going to whittle down the size of the middle class with each passing month. And this is just the beginning. In recent days, many corporate executives have been very vocal about the fact that more price hikes are ahead.
For example, Shake Shack has publicly announced that another round of price increases is incoming… "The popular burger chain Shake Shack announced it will be implementing yet another price hike in 2021 to fight inflation. During a conference call with analysts last week, Shake Shack’s chief financial officer Katherine Fogerty said customers will be paying three to 3.5 percent more for their food in the fourth quarter of 2021."
And the CEO of Tyson Foods is warning that costs keep rising even more quickly than his company can raise prices for consumers… "Tyson Foods Inc., the top chicken producer in the U.S., confirmed in an earnings call that food inflation continues to push prices higher. Tyson’s CEO Donnie King said higher costs are hitting the firm faster than the company can lift prices, and retail prices are set to rise on Sept. 5."
My friends, this is going to get bad. Really bad.
So what are our leaders doing in response? Well, they have decided to create, borrow and spend even more money. In fact, the Senate just passed a 1.2 trillion dollar infrastructure package and then immediately began working on a 3.5 trillion dollar spending package… "The Senate on Tuesday passed a $1 trillion infrastructure package and sent it to the House for consideration. The upper chamber then started work on a second $3.5 trillion package of further government spending. President Joe Biden will have to knit his party together to pass the larger measure. Already moderates like Sen. Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, have voiced concern about the impact of the $3.5 trillion measure on the $29 trillion national debt."
I feel like I am living in Crazytown. They know that they are causing inflation, but they just can’t help themselves. At this point, even a top Democrat is warning that there will be “grave consequences”… "U.S. Democratic Senator Joe Manchin on Wednesday said he had “serious concerns” about Senate Democrats’ planned $3.5 trillion spending plan, potentially gumming up efforts to move ahead with President Joe Biden’s top priorities. Manchin, in a statement, said that although he voted to move ahead and debate the plan, he was worried about the “grave consequences” of such spending on the nation’s debt as well as the country’s ability to respond to other potential crises."
But even though some of our politicians may pay lip service to fiscal responsibility once in a while, in the end most of them just keep voting for these insane spending packages. So what can we do? I often say that we should “hope for the best and prepare for the worst”, but in this case there is no hoping for the best. We know what they are going to do, and we know where this road leads. So my recommendation is to prepare for the worst, and then do some more preparing, because things will eventually get really, really bad.
Congress is going to pass wild spending package after wild spending package, and the Fed is just going to continue to pump billions upon billions of fresh dollars into the financial system. This is the greatest financial bubble in the history of the world, and it will be fascinating to watch how long it can last before it finally implodes."
Thursday, August 12, 2021
"Banks Keep Closing; Credit Cards Cancelled; Fast Food Jobs Are Now A Career; Worst Is Yet To Come"
Jeremiah Babe, PM 8/12/21:
"Banks Keep Closing; Credit Cards Cancelled;
Fast Food Jobs Are Now A Career; Worst Is Yet To Come"
"The 'Infrastructure' Bill"
"The 'Infrastructure' Bill"
by Brian Maher
"We are surprised only that so many are surprised…19 Republican members of the United States Senate hoisted a truce flag… came to terms with their Democratic foes… and signed their names a $1.2 trillion “infrastructure” bill. Thus the 2,700-page Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is the “bipartisan” Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
How many horses were traded? How many backs were scratched? How many palms were slicked? Which senators got the heaviest sugaring? We do not have all answers at this time. We have instructed our minions to investigate the particulars. We ordered them off at flank speed, and informed them we expect a detailed report very, very soon. Yet we know a 2,700-page bill can conceal a great deal of rascality… as high grass can conceal a snake… or a woodpile may conceal a skunk. Our men have shoveled up one telling detail, very much in point…
Senator Joe Manchin Holds the Cards: The United States Senate is a house divided against itself - plum down the middle - 50-50. Senator Joe Manchin is the senior senator from the state of West Virginia. He is a Democrat. Yet Senator Manchin is widely considered a “moderate” Democrat. He will graze against the grain when his conscience demands it… and buck his party. He is therefore a sort of makeweight. He can lower his thumb upon the legislative scales… and throw them tipping in either direction.
Given the senatorial mathematics, Democrats need him thumbing the scales their way. Else they are unable to shoulder through their ambitious agenda. Thus an “open for business” sign hangs upon his door in the Hart Senate Office Building. He can charge pretty premiums for his allegiance: “What do I get in return?”
It’s Not What You Know... Now consider: Senator Manchin is married to a certain Gayle Connelly Manchin. Mrs. Manchin chairs a body named the Appalachian Regional Commission. Mr. Biden appointed her to this august position. You might be surprised to learn: The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act - of which Sen. Manchin is a sponsor - jams $1 billion into the back pocket of the Appalachian Regional Commission.
Please ask yourself this question: Is it coincidence that the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act - of which Sen. Manchin is a sponsor - jams $1 billion into the back pocket of the Appalachian Regional Commission? For the matter of that… is it coincidence that Mr. Biden nominated Mrs. Manchin to chair the Appalachian Regional Commission in the first instance? We hazard these are not coincidences. Yet we have additional questions...
Why Did 19 Republicans Go Along? Why did 19 Republican senators sign their names on Mr. Biden’s dotted line? Why did these illustrious gentlemen and ladies deliver him a political win?
They were aware this $1.2 trillion “hard infrastructure” bill… which is perhaps 20% infrastructure… is tied up to a $3.5 trillion “soft infrastructure” bill to follow. That is, tied up to a $3.5 trillion “human infrastructure” bill. That is, tied up to a $3.5 trillion social spending bill. That is, tied up to a $3.5 trillion bread and circuses extravaganza.
Do we speculate? We do not speculate. Speaker Pelosi has already declared her intent. She has already spread her playing cards upon the gaming table. Reports The Hill: "Pelosi, since the infrastructure talks launched in earnest months ago, has adopted the position that the House will not turn to the $1 trillion infrastructure package until the Senate passes a much larger $3.5 trillion package chock full of Democratic social benefits programs and climate initiatives…
The Speaker has also been clear that the infrastructure package alone is insufficient to tackle the challenges facing the country when it comes to economic inequality, health care disparities, workers rights and the warming planet. It’s those issues that Democrats will address in the second legislative package, which is expected to move under special budget rules, known as reconciliation, which preclude the Republicans’ filibuster powers and allow Senate Democrats to pass the measure with a simple majority."
A second Hill article affirms Republicans knew well the “bait and switch” for which they were falling: "The Republicans knew ahead of time that there would be another bill with a total price tag of $3.5 trillion. They were told of the bait and switch. The second spending plan is led by the self-described democratic socialist, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). No matter what Republicans say about making it painful for Democrats to pass the second bill, their ignorance of reality is how this will be used against them."
The Debt Ceiling: Minority Leader Mitch McConnell seems to believe he holds an ace card up his shirtsleeve - the debt ceiling. The debt ceiling represents the total amount of money the federal government is authorized to borrow. In 2019, Congress suspended the debt limit until July 31, 2021. The ceiling was reestablished at $28.5 trillion. As of this afternoon… August 12, 2021… the national debt runs to $28.6 trillion. That is, above the previously established ceiling.
Absent a resolution to elevate the debt ceiling anew, the government cannot borrow additional monies. Ms. Janet Yellen and her Treasury Department have begun resorting to “extraordinary measures” to keep the government in funds. Yet the Congressional Budget Office estimates the national strongbox will empty in October or November - absent a deal. How can a government running a $2 trillion budget deficit... rub along if it cannot constantly borrow?
The question is the answer. Each and every species of calamity would follow, we are warned. Ms. Yellen moans about the “irreparable harm to the U.S. economy and the livelihoods of all Americans” that would befall the nation.
Will Republicans Use the Debt Ceiling as Leverage? But Senator McConnell has summoned his blood… drawn his line in the beach sand… and hunkered in. He will not aid and abet Democrats’ $3.5 trillion spree, he thunders: "Our friends across the aisle should not expect traditional bipartisan borrowing to finance their nontraditional reckless taxing and spending spree. That's not how this works."
Senate Democrats are wagering that the senior senator from Kentucky will buckle under the political pressure that will fall upon his slender shoulders. Washington Senator Patty Murray, a Democrat, gives him a dare: “Nobody wants to be responsible for a major economic disaster. So my guess is in the fall, he won’t be saying that.”
Argues Democratic Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii: “I am predicting, with absolute certainty, it will resolve itself uneventfully. Because it always does.”
Meantime, Senate Budget Chair Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) shoveled up Senator McConnell’s words from the previous debt ceiling “debate:” "Look what I have right here: These are all the quotes of Mitch McConnell, who has said, ‘We will never have America default.’ And he’s right. At the end of the day, Republicans understand ... they’re not going to destroy the economy." We are with Senator Sanders and his Democratic mates...
Fat Chance Republicans Hold Firm: Senator McConnell and his Republicans will blink their eyes. They will erase the line they drew across the sand. They will agree to raise the debt ceiling. We will eat each and every word of this article - without salt, without butter - if wrong.
There may be some limited breaking of lances for honor’s sake. Some slight amount of blood might be drawn… as sometimes blood is drawn in a professional wrestling bout. And for the same reason - to give a good show.
But the blows are false, and the combat is staged. Democrats may agree to scalpel out some blubber from the flanks of the $3.5 trillion enormity they propose. Republicans will proceed to raise their arms in victory. They will yell about delivering a blow for fiscal conservatism. They will then agree to raise the debt ceiling… and shake hands on a $3.49 trillion bill."
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Full screen recommended.
"US Debt of $30 Trillion Visualized in Stacks of Physical Cash"
"We're so freakin' doomed!"
Gerald Celente, "Trends Journal: The Covid War; The Fight of our Lives"
Full screen recommended.
Gerald Celente,
"Trends Journal: The Covid War; The Fight of our Lives"
"The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present Facts and Truth over fear and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for What’s Next in these increasingly turbulent times."○
Related, essential:
Musical Interlude: Two Steps From Hell, "Evergreen"
Full screen recommended.
Two Steps From Hell, "Evergreen"
Close your eyes, let your imagination flow with the music...
What images do you see, what do you feel?
"A Look to the Heavens"
"The beautiful Trifid Nebula is a cosmic study in contrasts. Also known as M20, it lies about "5,000 light-years away toward the nebula rich constellation Sagittarius. A star forming region in the plane of our galaxy, the Trifid does illustrate three different types of astronomical nebulae; red emission nebulae dominated by light from hydrogen atoms, blue reflection nebulae produced by dust reflecting starlight, and dark nebulae where dense dust clouds appear in silhouette. But the red emission region roughly separated into three parts by obscuring dust lanes is what lends the Trifid its popular name.
Pillars and jets sculpted by newborn stars, below and left of the emission nebula's center, appear in famous Hubble Space Telescope close-up images of the region. The Trifid Nebula is about 40 light-years across. Just too faint to be seen by the unaided eye, it almost covers the area of a full moon in planet Earth's sky."
Free Download: R.D. Laing, "The Divided Self: An Existential Study in Sanity and Madness"
"The Divided Self:
An Existential Study in Sanity and Madness"
by R.D. Laing
"Ronald David Laing (7 October 1927 – 23 August 1989), usually cited as R. D. Laing, was a Scottish psychiatrist who wrote extensively on mental illness – in particular, the experience of psychosis. Laing's views on the causes and treatment of serious mental dysfunction, greatly influenced by existential philosophy, ran counter to the psychiatric orthodoxy of the day by taking the expressed feelings of the individual patient or client as valid descriptions of lived experience rather than simply as symptoms of some separate or underlying disorder. Laing was associated with the anti-psychiatry movement, although he rejected the label. Politically, he was regarded as a thinker of the New Left.”
"First published in 1960, this watershed work aimed to make madness comprehensible, and in doing so revolutionized the way we perceive mental illness. Using case studies of patients he had worked with, psychiatrist R. D. Laing argued that psychosis is not a medical condition but an outcome of the 'divided self', or the tension between the two personas within us: one our authentic, private identity, and the other the false, 'sane' self that we present to the world.”
Freely download “The Divided Self:
An Existential Study in Sanity and Madness”, by R.D. Laing, here:
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"Insights Of R.D. Laing"
"Decades ago, psychiatrist R.D. Laing developed three rules by which he believed a pathological family (one suffering from abuse, alcoholism, etc.) can keep its pathology hidden from even its own family members. Adherence to these three rules allows perpetrators, victims, and observers to maintain the fantasy that they are all one big, happy family. The rules are: Rule A: Don't talk about the problems and abject conditions; Rule A1: Rule A does not exist; Rule A2: Do not discuss the existence or nonexistence of Rules A, A1, and/or A2."
“From the moment of birth, when the stone-age baby confronts the twentieth-century mother, the baby is subjected to these forces of violence, called love, as its mother and father have been, and their parents and their parents before them. These forces are mainly concerned with destroying most of its potentialities. This enterprise is on the whole successful.”
“Children do not give up their innate imagination, curiosity, dreaminess easily. You have to love them to get them to do that.”
“We are all murderers and prostitutes - no matter to what culture, society, class, nation one belongs, no matter how normal, moral, or mature, one takes oneself to be.”
“Insanity - a perfectly rational adjustment to an insane world.”
“We are bemused and crazed creatures, strangers to our true selves, to one another, and to the spiritual and material world - mad, even, from an ideal standpoint we can glimpse but not adopt.”
"Life is a sexually transmitted disease and the mortality rate is one hundred percent.”
“Insanity - a perfectly rational adjustment to an insane world.”
“We are bemused and crazed creatures, strangers to our true selves, to one another, and to the spiritual and material world - mad, even, from an ideal standpoint we can glimpse but not adopt.”
"Life is a sexually transmitted disease and the mortality rate is one hundred percent.”
"What Keeps You Going..."
"What keeps you going isn't some fine destination but just the road you're on, and the fact that you know how to drive. You keep your eyes open, you see this damned-to-hell world you got born into, and you ask yourself, 'What life can I live that will let me breathe in and out and love somebody or something and not run off screaming into the woods?'"
- Barbara Kingsolver
“For this is what we do. Put one foot forward and then the other. Lift our eyes to the snarl and smile of the world once more. Think. Act. Feel. Add our little consequence to the tides of good and evil that flood and drain the world. Drag our shadowed crosses into the hope of another night. Push our brave hearts into the promise of a new day. With love: the passionate search for truth other than our own. With longing: the pure, ineffable yearning to be saved. For so long as fate keeps waiting, we live on. God help us. God forgive us. We live on.”
- Gregory David Roberts, “Shantaram”
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