Friday, September 24, 2021

"Biden Breaking Bad"

"Biden Breaking Bad"
by Jim Kunstler

"Time, the saying goes, is nature’s way of making sure that everything doesn’t happen at once. So now, maybe, we’re at the event-horizon where nature is suspended, because everything seems to be happening at once. The weeks ahead will determine whether we are a coherent society that can function on the basis of a firm consensual reality, or just a convocation of battling narratives designed to conceal anything that quacks like truth, all veering toward failure.

Up this afternoon (Friday) for instance: the results of the Maricopa, AZ, election audit. The New York Times has declared a preliminary draft of the audit “a cap-gun ending to an inquiry whose backers hinted would turn up a cannonade of fraud.” Their conclusion: “Joe Biden” won the 2020 election fair-and-square. That would be momentous if it were true, but is it? Or is it just the juke of a player that typically runs zig-zags through the facts? The Times certainly has an interest in, shall we say, getting ahead of the story in its never-ending quest to control the narrative - as opposed to delivering actual news fit to print. I’m standing by to sort out the jokers from the face-cards.

Otherwise, it’s been a less than stellar month for the putative winner of that 2020 contest, the media figment known as “Joe Biden.” His open border policy flipped savagely on him as a nine-month influx of Central and South Americans (and opportunists from even more distant lands) turned into the bad optics of some 15,000 Haitians (most up from living in Chile, Columbia and other non-Haitian places) flooded the zone at Del Rio, Texas. Predictably, their insta-town under the border bridge turned septic when the few Port-a-Johns dropped off there boiled over - instant Haiti! - and the appalling situation could no longer be hidden from the news media.

Federal border agents next tried policing the scene on horseback — arguably a daintier approach than driving SUVs through the mob - and the news media instantly parlayed the scene of horseman using the reins to control their mounts into a narrative about slaves getting whipped in the cottonfields. In other words, another chapter in the testament of “systemic racism.” Even the notorious race hustler Al Sharpton drifted down to Del Rio to sprinkle a little gasoline on a potential fire, but his audience heckled him into submission and the operation fizzled.

Meanwhile, “Joe Biden” cranked up a cosmetic airlift sending a few Haitians back to Haiti - which they had fled from years ago to live in South America - at the same time shuttling another cohort of Haitians over to Houston and other cities around the USA, as if nobody will ever catch on to the shell game being played. Any way you cut it, the fiasco on the US / Mexican border had turned into a big loss for the Big Guy since the economic alarm bells ringing across the country tell you the last thing we need is more illegal immigrants to compete with actual citizens for a declining number of low-paying jobs.

The Big Guy also had a bad week on the family grift front as the story broke, first on Politico and then elsewhere like a brushfire, that the trove of incriminating memoranda on Hunter Biden’s laptop was for-real, and that the concerted effort to hide all that muck from the voters during last year’s election campaign was a completely dishonest operation. Add up all the memos and emails on Hunter’s hard-drive and you have a pretty clear digital trail of a major racketeering operation that can no longer be denied. So, will Merrick Garland’s DOJ keep ignoring it?

The Attorney General was probably forced to approve John Durham’s recent indictment of Hillary Clinton errand-boy, lawyer Michael Sussman, from the DC Lawfare Central outfit called Perkins Coie. I say forced because it was an open-and-shut case, and denial by Mr. Garland would have been seen as just another RussiaGate ploy by an agency hopelessly tainted by years of official criminal misconduct - and let’s assume that Mr. AG Garland does not want to be dragged into that mess, especially as Mr. Durham is unraveling it. And the Special Counsel signaled that he is doing just that by implicating a wheel of culpable public figures in a 27-page indictment for Mr. Sussman’s simple crime of lying to the FBI, which could have been accomplished in two concise paragraphs. That is, expect the Sussman indictment to not be the end of a matter that could be tending toward a massive RICO indictment against the entire DNC wax museum of liars and seditionists.

Coincidently - and on rather a separate track - we have China’s latest export to the advanced economies of the world: the meltdown of its bond market as signified in the wreck of super-gigantic real estate conglomerate Evergrande. Behold the broken daisy-chain of obligations stretching to the furthest reaches of global finance and the deleterious effect of that on capital markets everywhere to follow. The central banks are pulling out the last stops now to prevent a general meltdown of hallucinated “wealth” around the world and you can probably measure the success of that last-ditch effort in days as we enter the cursed month of October, when skeletons dance on the graves of lost fortunes. The stage-managers behind “Joe Biden” look forward to that as they would to so many stakes driven through their degenerate hearts.

Speaking of hearts, there is the current heart-of-the-matter, the Covid-19 engineered bioweapon being used internationally to suppress formerly free citizens of formerly democratic republics. It becomes more obvious each day that everything connected to this extravaganza is other than it appears to be. Chiefly, the vaccine is not a vaccine and it will probably end up killing more people than the Covid-19 disease and its variants. A lot of those deaths will be caused in the months ahead by damage to people’s hearts and other organs from spike proteins generated via mRNA shots. The reported official numbers are all lies of one kind or another, issued by agencies primarily concerned not with public health but with covering asses at the highest level, so do not trust them. If you haven’t had a vax shot, better seriously consider steering clear of your government’s desperate attempts to get the job done.

Events are converging. Everything is happening at once. Narratives are in collapse. Governments may soon commence to fall. Food and critical supplies of parts for things needed to run advanced societies are up next. What will you decide to do about yourself, your community, and your country?"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 9/24/21: "X-Factor Explained; Very Important Updates"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 9/24/21:
"X-Factor Explained; Very Important Updates"

"How It Really Is"

 

Greg Hunter, "Weekly News Wrap-Up for 9/24/21"

"Weekly News Wrap-Up for 9/24/21"
By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

"Superstar rap singer Nicki Minaj has escaped the Democrat thought plantation. Minaj posted some true negative information about side effects from the CV19 vaccines to her millions of fans on social media last week. The fire storm from globalist Marxist Democrats burned red hot. Minaj alleged her family was threatened, and the White House wanted to call her to give her proper information (talking points) about vax side effects. Minaj declined and was not happy. The mainstream media (MSM) also joined in on the reeducation of Minaj, which exposes the MSM, once again, as pure propaganda and not journalism. Minaj is not backing down to what she calls “bullies”! There is lots of new scientific information out this week that shows the dangers of the so-called vaccines, but it’s all “misinformation” to the propaganda machine that wants you jabbed no matter what.

Adam Schiff and his Democrat colleagues have introduced legislation to limit the powers and protections of the President of the United States of America. What??? Isn’t a Democrat going to be in the White House for the next 3 years? What’s going on? Do Democrats think there is a chance that Trump will be reinstated? I think they do. After all, the Dems know full well they cheated to win the White House, Senate and House. Of course, more and more cheating is exposed every week, and the results of the Arizona audit are coming out soon. Meanwhile, states like Texas are announcing new forensic audits of the 2020 Election in the Lone Star State.

Looks like the federal government will not shut down as Speaker Pelosi has announced a Continuing Resolution that will keep the government running and paying its bills. Another crisis has been averted, but the spending crisis and debt crisis is going on unabated. Will the Fed finally taper all the easy money, or will another financial crisis force them to print bigger mountains of money to keep it all afloat? I predict we are going to see by the end of this year."

"Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he talks about these
 stories and more in the Weekly News Wrap-Up for 9.24.21."

"Charles Hugh Smith: Fed Assuring 80% To 90% Collapse Of Bubble"

Full screen recommended.
"Charles Hugh Smith: 
Fed Assuring 80% To 90% Collapse Of Bubble"
by Paul “Half Dollar” Eberhart

"From a revival of the inflation-deflation debate to the imminent collapse of the global banking system, there is no shortage of market & economic news, and noise, although there does seem to be a shortage of high quality thought about what’s really going on. So let’s get our bearings and try to think correctly about all of the unfolding dynamics, so that we do not fall victim to them. And to help us understand what’s happening in the markets and the economy, today, September 23, 2021, Half Dollar sat down with Charles Hugh Smith from Of Two Minds for a robust discussion on some important topics.

Topics in today’s discussion include:
• How has the US dollar not already hyperinflated?
• What are the distortions versus the reality when it comes to consumer price inflation?
• What are we to make of the the supply chain disruptions in general and the microchip shortage specifically?
• People are opting out?
• Are we facing the imminent collapse of the global banking system?

For robust discussion around all of those topics and a whole lot more, tune-in to the interview in its entirety."

Thursday, September 23, 2021

"Morgan Stanley: A Destructive Stock Market Crash Is On The Horizon"

Full screen recommended.
"Morgan Stanley: 
A Destructive Stock Market Crash Is On The Horizon"
by Epic Economist

"It's September, and stock markets around the world are starting to panic about an imminent global financial meltdown. It's been 18 months since the onset of the health crisis and the latest stock market collapse. From that point on, stocks went on an unprecedented rally, but those extraordinary gains weren't supported by real economic growth.

For experienced investors, who have seen the events that led to previous crashes, it has become evident that this monstrous stock market bubble cannot be sustained for much longer. When they look at the markets, they can see a bubble of everything. Or as GMO fund manager and legendary investor Jeremy Grantham, puts it, there's “an epic bubble” about to burst. As the market veteran explained, “extreme overvaluation, explosive price increases, frenzied issuance, and hysterically speculative investor behavior” have all contributed to the uncontrolled growth of this bubble.

Over the past eight months, the S&P went up by 20.6%, the highest growth on record. But that's extremely concerning considering that this splendid rally happened just as the U.S. economy fell deep into recession. At this point, U.S. stock, bond, and housing markets are simply defying financial gravity. The more the bubble expands, the bigger are the risks. The tech bubble and the cryptocurrency bubble are simply off the charts. And they keep on rising as if a day of reckoning would never come. But things are about to change.

Traders are running increasingly more scared since the Evergrande default contagion is threatening to spark widespread bankruptcies. That could lead to losses to the tune of hundreds of billions. Already, Hong Kong stocks plummeted to the lowest level in nearly a decade. The Chinese government is struggling to come up with critical support before the whole thing collapses. But some market watchers are warning that the initial default was enough to unleash a cascade of systemic failures on the global markets.

Most recently, legendary investor Jim Rogers made the headlines as he warned about growing risks and a looming collapse in the market. Rogers has seen more market ups and downs than most people alive today. During an international forum hosted by Russia, he revealed to be more concerned about the market’s future prospects than he’s ever been before. He says that there's simply too much debt, while inflation is getting out of hand, the dollar is being debased as central banks continue to intervene in the markets, speculation is at all-time highs, and geopolitical tensions are further stressing the near-term outlook. The current macroeconomic environment doesn't look good at all.

That's why he confidently predicts that we will witness a massive economic and financial meltdown that will unleash the biggest bear market of our lifetime. The investor argues that the collapse has started and it will soon cascade its way towards the US, eventually sinking the entire system into a deep recession, if not a downright Depression. “I caution all of you, it’s been 11 years since we’ve had a serious bear market, and I would suggest to you that next time when we have a serious bear market it’s going to be the worst in our lifetime,” he said.

Rogers pointed out that the huge debt piled up by policymakers to paper over every crack in the economy or market is losing its effect. "Eventually, the market is going to say: ‘We don't want this, we don’t want to play this game anymore, and we don’t want your garbage paper anymore’," he said referring to the Fed's Quantitative Easing program. “And that’s when we will have very serious problems... We all are going to pay a horrible price," he added. Bearing in mind that the Everything Bubble has been expanded on the back of near-zero economic growth, valuations simply cannot stay at record highs even with more easy money, since the growth rate for liquidity already peaked in the first quarter.

Markets don’t need an exotic reason to crash - a simple change of sentiment could do it. And that change already started in Chinese markets. Despite comparisons that the Evergrande default crisis may be China's Lehman moment, given today's fundamentals, stocks don’t need a “Lehman Event” to crash. They're priced for perfection, and the global economy is far from perfect right now. A domino fall has begun, and for the first time in 18 months, policymakers will not be injecting more stimulus into the economy. That is to say, all the major tailwinds that created the bubble of everything have started slowing or reversing. The only catalyst the stock market bubble needs to pop now is time."

“Illusions Cannot Rescue The Economy; Fake Money Cannot Repay Debt; Costco Customers Stockpiling”

Jeremiah Babe PM 9/23/21:
“Illusions Cannot Rescue The Economy; 
Fake Money Cannot Repay Debt; Costco Customers Stockpiling”

"The Most Dangerous Man"

"The Most Dangerous Man"
by Brian Maher

“The most dangerous man to any government,” argued Henry Louis Mencken, “is the man who is able to think things out... without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos.” “Almost inevitably,” continued Baltimore’s sage, ”he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable… Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.”

Your editor does not claim to be decent - much less good. By his own admission he is a sinful and viceful blackleg, an abomination to God and man alike. Yet even by this hellcat’s lamentable morality, he finds the government he lives under dishonest. He finds it insane. He finds it intolerable. He would add an additional lamentation: He finds the government he lives under vastly incompetent. “Never underestimate the incompetence of government,” as author James Cook argues.

This incompetence may explain - in part - its dishonesty, its insanity, its intolerability. In brief, your editor is ashamed of the government he lives under. And if you will indulge him briefly, for ample reason... Its catalogue of villainy must run to several hundred finely printed pages - at barest minimum. We lack the space to document one slender fraction of them. Let us consider, then, one lone example - government’s dishonest, insane and intolerable (mis)management of the virus.

One Story, Then Another: After initially advising us not to wear facial masks because they are ineffective, it later instructed us to reject this original counsel. Yet one study after the next demonstrates to a very high degree that these coverings are severely deficient. If they are effective at all, it is only at the extreme margins. Yet to this day governments order their wearing - including out of doors in cases.

Outdoor edicts are doubly damned by this capital fact: Outdoor transmission is nearly non-existent. All evidence - we are told - indicates transmission is an indoor hazard. Yet the state of Oregon requires facial coverings in most outdoor spaces where asocial distancing is not possible… including the vaccinated. Our men inform us the same state of Oregon has endured a 73% increase in cases since the edict entered effect - incidentally. Can we now expect Oregon to ban outdoor socializing altogether? If not dishonest, the business is very likely insane… and certainly intolerable to sensible men.

Science? One moment ago we referred, jestingly, to social distancing. Authorities instructed us all to stand six feet distant from one another. “The science” required it, we were told. Yet here is a certain Scott Gottlieb. Mr. Gottlieb is the former commissioner of the United States Food and Drug Administration. From whom: The six feet was arbitrary in and of itself, nobody knows where it came from... This is how the whole thing feels arbitrary and not science based. So we talk about a very careful, science-based process and these anecdotes get exposed, and that’s where Americans start to lose confidence in how the decisions got made. And for excellent cause - this fellow concedes the six-foot rule was “arbitrary” - and that “nobody knows where it came from.”

Why should Americans listen to their witchcraft, their voodoo? If not intolerable… if not insane... certainly dishonest.

One Virus, Two Standards: Governments shuttered America’s restaurants, alehouses, barbershops, nail salons, gymnasiums, arenas, beaches, all places of public resort. Governments ordered churches to scatter their flocks - and to bolt their doors. And if the Grim Reaper tapped a loved one’s shoulder? Then you may have been unable to attend his planting. That is because governments restricted graveside sendoffs to a handful of bereaved.

These were the grim but necessary costs of containing a pandemic, we were told. Yet the same governments that barred you from the funeral, that locked you out of Sunday service, that confined you to quarters, blessed the mightiest mass gatherings we have ever encountered. We refer of course to the nationwide demonstrations against the police handling of Mr. George Floyd.

That is, certain Americans were permitted to swarm in their thousands, in their tens of thousands, in their hundreds of thousands… to protest… yet others could not gather in their dozens to worship almighty God or to lower a flower on a casket.

Reduce it to its essence. This is what you must conclude: The rules were arbitrary. The rules were capricious. The rules warred against logic itself. That is, the rules were dishonest, insane and intolerable. The rules also proved ineffective. Multiple studies conclude that so-called lockdowns failed to cordon the virus. Municipalities with varying restrictions suffered similar infection rates.

Vaccines Mean a Return to Normalcy! Next we were informed that vaccines were our deliverance. They would allow us to empty our masks into the hellbox. They would permit us to gather in public as we pleased, and in whatever numbers we pleased. Though these vaccines were experimental… and did not endure the rigorous testing required of trial vaccines… the public health authorities assured us they were “safe and effective.”

They may be safe and effective in their way. We do not deny that many have benefited from their application. We do not deny that they have spared lives. Yet many of the fully vaccinated have contracted the virus. A portion of these cases are severe, we understand. Some are fatal.

Our men inform us: In Great Britain, 75% of the deceased are vaccinated. In Israel, perhaps the most vaccinated nation of Earth, the vaccinated are likewise being savaged. The medical director at Jerusalem’s Herzog Hospital claims 95% of severe cases therein are vaccinated - fully vaccinated.

The intricate hocus-pocus of vaccinology and immunization is beyond our limited knowledge. And statistics are lovely liars. Yet the vaccines do not appear as effective as the advertising has them.

Protecting the Vaccinated From the Unvaccinated: The United States president has in fact pledged to guard the vaccinated… against the unvaccinated. His announcement gave us a good wobble, a good stagger. What kinds of vaccines are these? The armored require protection against the unarmored? Evidently vaccines whose magic fades within six months… which appears to be the case with these potions.

Are the vaccines safe? We have presented evidence that severe side effects run to the hundreds of thousands, and that fatalities run to the tens of thousands. Three hundred seventy-five North Carolina hospital employees have walked away from their jobs rather than submit to mandatory vaccination. We hear of additional mass quittings nationwide. We hazard their experiences handling patients with vaccine aftereffects have chased them off. Yet the authorities are adamant to keep it all dark.

So Many Questions: How many have died needlessly... because the public health authorities have refused to sanction the early use of such therapeutics as hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin? Why are physicians who question the safety or efficacy of these vaccines threatened with delicensure? And why, we wonder, do the public health authorities demand vaccination for those who have previously contracted the virus… and emerged intact? Evidence indicates natural immunity is perhaps 27 times as formidable as vaccine-induced immunity. What is more, we understand vaccines may prove lethal to the naturally immune.

Again, why should they endure vaccination? Questions, questions… and more questions. We await answers, square answers.

The Dangerous Man: Dishonest. Insane. Intolerable. “The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out... without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos.” We prefer to believe this publication draws in the man who is able to think things out, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. That is, we prefer to believe this publication attracts the dangerous man - and yes - the dangerous woman. It is they who see through government whim-wham. It is they who penetrate deceptions, frauds and falsehoods. It is they who sniff rats, who point out skunks in woodpiles. The dangerous man, the dangerous woman, we are pleased to have with us... Even if... on rare occasion... we may be dangerously mistaken…"

Gerald Celente, PM 9/23/21: "Trends in The News Live"

Full screen recommended.
Gerald Celente, PM 9/23/21:
VERY Strong Language Alert!
"Trends in The News Live"
"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."

Musical Interlude: Era, “Infinity Ocean”

Full screen recommended.
Era, “Infinity Ocean”

"A Look to the Heavens"

“In one of the brightest parts of Milky Way lies a nebula where some of the oddest things occur. NGC 3372, known as the Great Nebula in Carina, is home to massive stars and changing nebulas. The Keyhole Nebula (NGC 3324), the bright structure just above the image center, houses several of these massive stars and has itself changed its appearance.
The entire Carina Nebula spans over 300 light years and lies about 7,500 light-years away in the constellation of Carina. Eta Carinae, the most energetic star in the nebula, was one of the brightest stars in the sky in the 1830s, but then faded dramatically. Eta Carinae is the brightest star near the image center, just left of the Keyhole Nebula. While Eta Carinae itself may be on the verge of a supernova explosion, X-ray images indicate that much of the Great Carina Nebula has been a veritable supernova factory.”

Chet Raymo, "On Saying 'I Don't Know'"

"On Saying 'I Don't Know'"
by Chet Raymo

“Johannes Kepler is best known for figuring out the laws of planetary motion. In 1610, he published a little book called “The Six-Cornered Snowflake” that asked an even more fundamental question: How do visible forms arise? He wrote: "There must be some definite reason why, whenever snow begins to fall, its initial formation is invariably in the shape of a six-pointed starlet. For if it happens by chance, why do they not fall just as well with five corners or with seven?"

All around him Kepler saw beautiful shapes in nature: six-pointed snowflakes, the elliptical orbits of the planets, the hexagonal honeycombs of bees, the twelve-sided shape of pomegranate seeds. Why? he asks. Why does the stuff of the universe arrange itself into five-petaled flowers, spiral galaxies, double-helix DNA, rhomboid crystals, the rainbow's arc? Why the five-fingered, five-toed, bilaterally symmetric beauty of the newborn child? Why?

Kepler struggles with the problem, and along the way he stumbles onto sphere-packing. Why do pomegranate seeds have twelve flat sides? Because in the growing pomegranate fruit the seeds are squeezed into the smallest possible space. Start with spherical seeds, pack them as efficiently as possible with each sphere touching twelve neighbors. Then squeeze. Voila! And so he goes, convincing us, for example, that the bee's honeycomb has six sides because that's the way to make honey cells with the least amount of wax. His book is a tour-de-force of playful mathematics.

In the end, Kepler admits defeat in understanding the snowflake's six points, but he thinks he knows what's behind all of the beautiful forms of nature: A universal spirit pervading and shaping everything that exists. He calls it nature's "formative capacity." We would be inclined to say that Kepler was just giving a fancy name to something he couldn't explain. To the modern mind, "formative capacity" sounds like empty words.

We can do somewhat better. For example, we explain the shape of snowflakes by the shape of water molecules, and we explain the shape of water molecules with the mathematical laws of quantum physics. Since Kepler's time, we have made impressive progress towards understanding the visible forms of snowflakes, crystals, rainbows, and newborn babes by probing ever deeper into the heart of matter. But we are probably no closer than Kepler to answering the ultimate questions: What is the reason for the curious connection between nature and mathematics? Why are the mathematical laws of nature one thing rather than another? Why does the universe exist at all? Like Kepler, we can give it a name, but the most forthright answer is simply: I don't know.”

The Poet: Langston Hughes, "Life is Fine "

"Life is Fine"

"I went down to the river,
I set down on the bank.
I tried to think but couldn't,
So I jumped in and sank.
I came up once and hollered!
I came up twice and cried!
If that water hadn't a-been so cold
I might've sunk and died.
But it was Cold in that water! It was cold!

I took the elevator
Sixteen floors above the ground.
I thought about my baby,
And thought I would jump down.
I stood there and I hollered!
I stood there and I cried!
If it hadn't a-been so high
I might've jumped and died.
But it was High up there! It was high!

So since I'm still here livin',
I guess I will live on.
I could've died for love -
But for livin' I was born.
Though you may hear me holler,
And you may see me cry -
I'll be dogged, sweet baby,
If you gonna see me die.

Life is fine! Fine as wine! Life is fine!"

- Langston Hughes

Gregory Mannarino, PM 9/23/21: "Economy Contracting Rapidly, Inflation Not Transitory, Stock Market Rips Higher"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 9/23/21:
"Economy Contracting Rapidly, Inflation Not Transitory, 
Stock Market Rips Higher"

The Daily "Near You?"

Machias, Maine, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"The End of the World As We Have Known It"

"The End of the World As We Have Known It"
By Bill Bonner

"He who takes what isn’t his’n

Pays it back or goes to prison..."
– 19th century American businessman Daniel Drew

BALTIMORE, MARYLAND – "What we were looking for in the Evergrande story was a hint… a clue… an advance warning of things to come. What happens when you can’t pay your debts? How does it end? With a bang of inflation? Or a whimper of deflation? Our prediction: Both.

Every bubble blows up. Every excess has to be resolved. And every debt gets settled – one way or another. Typically, a bubble brings on a case of “irrational exuberance.” The irrationally exuberant investor pays too much for his assets. The irrationally exuberant businessman stretches too far… borrows too much… and over-extends himself. The irrationally exuberant empire invades Afghanistan. But no one and nothing is ever evergrande, of course. It is only occasionally grand. And when the occasion passes… so does the grandeur.

Too Much Excess: “And then what?” is our question today. We have the answer, too: the end of the world as we have known it.

An excess of private investment usually produces an excess of capacity… and excess output. Too much, in other words. Then, when the Bubble Epoch passes… the excess is usually reckoned with in a DEFLATION. Prices fall… until demand picks up enough to clear the market. The investors and producers, who misjudged the situation, and their suppliers and employees, suffer the losses. That’s what happened in America after the crash of 1929.

Private industry had expanded in the Roaring Twenties… By the 1930s, it produced far more autos and electrical appliances than the market could absorb. Prices – for stocks, as well as consumer items – collapsed. The price of milk, for example, fell so low that dairy farmers dumped it on the ground rather than sell it. Stock prices dropped for nearly three years, from 377 Dow points in October, 1929, to only 44 in July of 1932. Then, it took 25 more years, a Great Depression, and World War II for prices to recover.

Asian Bust: A similar thing happened more recently, when the Japan Inc. miracle economy blew up in 1989. The Japanese, too, had invested heavily to meet the demands of world consumers. Japan was the world’s big success story of the 1970s and 1980s. And by the end of the 1980s, it was on top of the world… with nowhere to go but down. Which is where it went…

Stocks fell 80%. 32 years later, they have still not recovered. Most likely, the coming bust in China will take the same path. It is an economy that grew by investing huge amounts in capital improvements – factories, infrastructure, malls, and housing. Now, it must mark its excess capacity to market… which will mean much lower prices for just about everything. Deflation, in other words. But not the end of the world.

What Goes Up… But the U.S. is different. It is not an economy on the way up – like America in 1929, Japan in 1989, or China today. It is an economy on the way down. And for the last 20 years, it has lived in a bubble world… like an aging action hero, who can no longer do his own stunts. Instead of investing money in new businesses, new technology, and new infrastructure, it squandered trillions of dollars on vanity projects, stock buybacks, executive compensation, and ghastly government boondoggles, including a 20-year, dead-end war in Afghanistan.

Yes, the business cycle naturally expands and contracts. It breathes in and breathes out. Sometimes inflating. Sometimes deflating. Naturally and normally, after a period of price inflation comes a period of price deflation. That is to say, the bubble seeks its pin… and always finds it. But what is especially inflated in the U.S.?

Asset prices. Those are the things the Federal Reserve has been inflating. And those are the things – stocks and bonds – you can expect to deflate in the coming crisis. (Housing is a special situation. Houses are not over-abundant, but artificially low interest rates have made them very expensive.)

…Must Come Down: But taking asset prices down a peg is not the end of the world either. What is the end of the world is when the feds block the markets from correcting… when they insist that assets can’t go down… and when they rig the whole economy to protect their own wealth and privileges. So, let’s walk through what is likely to happen.

First comes the obvious and inevitable market crash. For the fourth time this century, the stock market – extremely overpriced – tries to correct. Left alone, this would clear up the many grotesqueries now blemishing the markets and the economy. Stocks would get cut in half, at least. Many companies would go out of business. The rich wouldn’t be so rich. And then, the survivors would pick up the pieces and build a healthier economy on the ruins.

Fed’s Disastrous Rescue: But that is not going to happen. Because the feds will come to the rescue. They will give the economy another dose of that magic elixir – fake money. And that money will not only be used to prop up the stock market, but also to finance sweeping new squander projects of the government. And this time, the cat will be out of the bag; everyone will see consumer price inflation getting worse. And it will be obvious that the Fed cannot stop it. The bond market – the foundation of the whole capital structure – will heave and crack. And the end of the world as we have known it will come front and center. Stay tuned."

Musical Interlude: Leonard Cohen, "Anthem"

Full screen recommended.
Leonard Cohen, "Anthem"

"Anthem" by Leonard Cohen "The birds they sang at the break of day. Start again, I heard them say. Don't dwell on what has passed away, or what is yet to be. Ah the wars they will be fought again. The holy dove She will be caught again, bought and sold, and bought again, the dove is never free. Ring the bells that still can ring, Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack in everything, That's how the light gets in. We asked for signs, the signs were sent: the birth betrayed, the marriage spent. Yeah the widowhood of every government - signs for all to see. I can't run no more with that lawless crowd, while the killers in high places say their prayers out loud. But they've summoned, they've summoned up a thundercloud, and they're going to hear from me. Ring the bells that still can ring... You can add up the parts but you won't have the sum. You can strike up the march, there is no drum. Every heart, every heart, to love will come, but like a refugee. Ring the bells that still can ring, Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack, a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in. Ring the bells that still can ring, Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack, a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in. That's how the light gets in. That's how the light gets in."

This Spadecaller Video ® features Leonard Cohen's music,
"Anthem", and the artwork of Matthew Schwartz.

"We Just Witnessed The Largest One Year Increase In Murder In The History Of The United States"

"We Just Witnessed The Largest One Year Increase 
In Murder In The History Of The United States"
by Michael Snyder

"Our violent, blood-soaked culture has produced a violent, blood-soaked reality in our streets. The final numbers for 2020 have finally been released by the FBI, and they are stunning. Prior to last year, the largest one year increase in the murder rate in the United States was 12.7 percent, and that came all the way back in 1968. Needless to say, many of you that are reading this article were not even alive in 1968. Well, we didn’t just break the old record last year. We more than doubled it. According to the FBI’s annual report on crime, the nationwide murder rate was up about 29 percent in 2020

"The United States in 2020 experienced the biggest rise in murder since the start of national record-keeping in 1960, according to data gathered by the FBI for its annual report on crime. The Uniform Crime Report will stand as the official word on an unusually grim year, detailing a rise in murder of around 29%. The previous largest one-year change was a 12.7% increase in 1968."

Let that sink in for a minute. Never before in U.S. history has the murder rate shot up so rapidly. And guess what? The murder rate is even higher this year than it was last year. According to the New York Times, so far in 2021 the murder rate in our largest cities is almost 10 percent higher than it was during the same period in 2020… "The evidence from big cities suggests murder is still up in 2021 relative to 2020, although the increase is not nearly as big. My collection of data from 87 cities with publicly available year-to-date data shows murder up by 9.9 percent relative to comparable points in 2020."

That means that the violence in our inner cities has gotten even worse. So why is this happening? In an editorial for USA Today, a former deputy police commissioner linked the rise in violent crime to a lack of policing… "After the George Floyd protests started in New York City, the New York Police Department logged 45,000 fewer arrests from June to December - a 38% decline while the Big Apple added more than 100 additional homicides (a 58% increase).

From June through the end of this February, Chicago’s police made 31,000 fewer arrests - a 53% decline as murders rose 65%. In Louisville, where massive unrest included the shooting of two police officers during a protest, homicides jumped 87% as the police made 35% fewer vehicle stops since June while arrests plummeted 42% during summer months compared with 2019."

From Los Angeles and Houston to New Orleans and Minneapolis, the political response to the unrest lead to de-policing and the resulting record violence. This trend toward less aggressive policing was a direct result of the George Floyd tragedy and the ensuing protests. Nobody wants to become the next police officer that makes national news, and so police all over the nation have become much more cautious. As a result, violent criminals now have much more freedom to operate, and they are taking advantage of it.

Every day we see more examples of the rising tide of violence. For example, just hours ago a homeless man “with a rope tied around his neck” was found dead in Central Park… "A homeless man was found dead with a rope tied around his neck in Central Park Wednesday morning - and cops are now eyeing homicide, according to police and sources. A woman who was gardening made the disturbing discovery around 8:15 a.m. in the meadow at East 65th Street and East Drive, cops said. The 26-year-old man, who is known to police for frequenting the park, was found lying unconscious with a rope tied around his neck."

In America today, so many people that are pushed into homelessness end up dead. We desperately need to do something about our growing homelessness crisis, because more people are ending up on the streets with each passing month. I greatly applaud all of the private citizens that are taking the initiative to do what they can to help the homeless, but the streets are not safe for them either. In fact, a man named Robert Herron was just killed in Oakland while he was right in the middle of feeding the homeless… “I heard boom, boom, boom. Three to four shots. I turned to look and he’s in the gutter,” said Chavez.

One man who identified himself as ‘Slim’ Hoover said he was among those receiving a meal from the couple. He said Herron suffered several gunshot wounds: “I was basically trying to keep him stable and alive until the paramedics and the police got there.”

You have got to be pretty evil to kill someone while they are giving food to the homeless. But you won’t find our society’s worst killers out in the streets. Instead, you will find them walking the halls of power. When we think of “murderers”, we tend to envision young men with guns running around our decaying urban centers in the middle of the night. But the biggest murderers sit behind big desks in cushy offices.

We like to think that the United States is a light to the rest of the world, but over the years the decisions that our leaders have made have resulted in death, destruction, pain and suffering on a scale that is difficult to put into words. So I don’t want anyone preaching to me about how “good” the United States is. Because the truth is that we are not “good” at all. And if the whole truth about our misdeeds ever gets revealed for the whole planet to see, the rest of the world is going to turn on us with great fury.

So yes, the crime in our streets is really bad, but what our most powerful men and women do behind closed doors is far worse, and eventually our entire nation will be held accountable for what they have done. If you don’t think that those running things are truly that bad, then you definitely have not been paying attention. Sadly, much of the population actually enthusiastically supports what our top national leaders have been doing, and that makes them culpable too."

Gregory Mannarino, "The Big Secret You Are Not Supposed To Know: The US Economy Is Collapsing Faster"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 9/23/21:
"The Big Secret You Are Not Supposed To Know:
The US Economy Is Collapsing Faster"

"How It Really Is"

Aware and fully informed of current crises by their never-lying 
Government and media, alarmed Americans react accordingly...

"We're so freakin' doomed!"
- The Mogambo Guru

"Economic Market Snapshot AM 9/23/21"

"Economic Market Snapshot AM 9/23/21"

"Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will
do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone."
- John Maynard Keynes
"The more I see of the monied classes,
the better I understand the guillotine."
- George Bernard Shaw

MarketWatch Market Summary, Live Updates

CNN Market Data:

CNN Fear And Greed Index:
A comprehensive, essential daily read.
September 22nd to 24th, Updated Daily
Financial Stress Index
"The OFR Financial Stress Index (OFR FSI) is a daily market-based snapshot of stress in global financial markets. It is constructed from 33 financial market variables, such as yield spreads, valuation measures, and interest rates. The OFR FSI is positive when stress levels are above average, and negative when stress levels are below average. The OFR FSI incorporates five categories of indicators: credit, equity valuation, funding, safe assets and volatility. The FSI shows stress contributions by three regions: United States, other advanced economies, and emerging markets."
Daily Job Cuts
Commentary, highly recommended:
And now, the End Game...
Oh yeah...

"Before They Were An Inconvenience, But Now The Shortages Are Really Beginning To Sting"

"Before They Were An Inconvenience, 
But Now The Shortages Are Really Beginning To Sting"
by Michael Snyder

"Have you noticed that store shelves are starting to get emptier and emptier? During the panic shopping that was sparked by the start of the COVID pandemic in 2020, there were very intense shortages of certain items, but those shortages did not last very long at all. But now there are widespread shortages in just about every sector of our economy, and they are starting to become quite painful. Unfortunately, we are being told to expect the shortages to intensify as we head into the holiday season. That is extremely alarming, because in many areas the shortages are already quite severe.

I had been away from the news for a couple of days, and when I came back there were lots more stories about our ongoing shortages. For example, the following comes from an excellent piece by Matt Stoller…"There are shortages in everything from ocean shipping containers to chlorine tablets to railroad capacity to black pipe (the piping that houses wires inside buildings) to spicy chicken breasts to specialized plastic bags necessary for making vaccines. Moreover, prices for all sorts of items, from housing to food, are changing in weird ways. Beef, for instance, is at near record highs for consumers, but cattle ranchers are getting paid much less than they used to for their cows."

In my entire life, I have never seen anything like this. Even the Federal Reserve is admitting that we have a major problem at this point. In fact, in the latest Beige Book the Fed referred to the shortages a whopping 80 times.

In certain parts of the country, these shortages are really beginning to sting. A reader just emailed me about what is going on in his section of Connecticut, and he said that I could share this with all of you…"I am just a regular guy in Connecticut, who has been watching things very closely, especially from a Biblical perspective. I wanted to quickly share with you an experience my wife and I had about two weeks ago at a medium-size, family run grocery store near Waterbury, CT.

Seemingly overnight, we noticed there were little yellow signs on the shelves, where certain SKUs used to be. Not entire lines, but individual SKUs. For example, a flavor of oatmeal, certain cereals, etc. The signs said something to the effect of: “This item is no longer available due to supply chain constraints”. I would say there were a few hundred signs in total throughout the store. It wasn’t until we got to the juice/water aisle that we noticed the larger problem: there was no Gatorade (?) and no bottled water (gallon jugs).

I have befriended the manager over the years, so I asked him where the water is, and he told me “…they only will give us so many bottles”. I asked who ‘they’ is, and he said the manufacturer: they were being rationed. As he said this, a truck driver happened to walk by and joined in on the conversation. He told us that he just got back from Maine, after a three-day trip- a trip that normally takes him a few hours. He said he, and all of the other truck drivers, sit at the warehouses for days, waiting for their trucks to be filled. To be clear, I asked him how long it normally takes, and he said a few hours at the most.

On our way out, I remembered that we needed dog food, so we went to the pet aisle, and there was no cat litter, and no dog food, save a few little bags of the cheapest stuff. All of the things Steve Quayle has been saying about food and water shortages suddenly became reality. I always believed him, but now I was seeing it, at the very local level. We then decided to go to PetSmart to get the dog food. Empty. The entire dog food shelf was empty except for a few bags!"

Are similar things happening in your part of the country? If so, please feel free to email me and let me know. We need to share intel with one another, because the mainstream media is not telling us the truth.

Of course the shortages would not be as severe if we could actually unload all of the container ships that are backlogged at our ports. Right now, dozens of container ships are sitting along the west coast waiting to be unloaded…"The number of container ships at anchor or drifting in San Pedro Bay off the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach has blown through all previous records.

The latest peak: There were an all-time-high 73 container ships in the queue in San Pedro Bay on Sunday, according to the Marine Exchange of Southern California (the tally inched back to 69 on Tuesday). Of the ships offshore Sunday, 36 were forced to drift because anchorages were full."

Theoretically, the numbers - already surreally high - could go even higher than this. While designated anchorages are limited, the space for ships to safely drift offshore is not. This is the same problem that I talked about the other day.

At one time we had more able-bodied workers than we knew what to do with, but now there is an extreme shortage of workers all over the globe. Sadly, it has gotten to a point where we don’t even have enough people to drive our kids to school…"School districts around the country are struggling to fill thousands of bus driver positions as worker shortages lead to late arrivals and last-minute scrambles to bring retired workers back onto payrolls.

The shortages are so bad in some places that districts are taking extraordinary steps to get kids to school as students return to in-person classes this fall. Philadelphia’s school district will pay families $300 a month, or $3,000 for the year, to opt out of transportation services and get their kids to school on their own. Albemarle County Public Schools in Virginia is offering a $2,500 bonus to new drivers - $100 more than the school district in the county seat, Charlottesville, is offering."

This is the worst labor shortage that the U.S. has ever faced, and it just keeps getting worse. So where did all the people go? Without enough able-bodied workers, our economy is experiencing a whole host of difficulties right now. And when you consider everything else that has been going on, it shouldn’t be a surprise that Joe Biden’s approval rating just sunk to a new record low…"Eight months after President Joe Biden’s inauguration, his job approval rating has fallen six percentage points to 43%, the lowest of his presidency. For the first time, a majority, 53%, now disapproves of Biden’s performance.

These findings are from a Sept. 1-17 Gallup poll that was conducted after the U.S. military evacuated more than 120,000 people from Afghanistan. The United States’ exit from the nation’s longest war was marred by the Taliban’s quick takeover of most of the country and a suicide bombing at the airport in Kabul, which killed 13 U.S. service members. Over the same period, COVID-19 infection rates, nationally, were surging, leading to hospital overflows in some regions."

And there are some parts of the nation where his approval rating is absolutely disastrous. Just check out the latest numbers from Iowa…"Just 31% of Iowans approved of how Joe Biden is handling his duties as president while a whopping 62% disapprove. Biden’s disapproval number is below the lowest ever measured by ace pollster J. Ann Selzer for former presidents Donald Trump (35%) and Barack Obama (36%). “This is a bad poll for Joe Biden, and it’s playing out in everything that he touches right now,” Selzer told the Des Moines Register."

Less than a year ago, a lot of Americans were viewing Biden as some sort of a “savior” figure. That didn’t exactly work out, did it? Many of us have been warning that shortages and high levels of inflation were coming for a very long time, but of course most of the population is not interested in such warnings. They just want to be told that everything is going to be okay. But the truth is that everything is not going to be okay, and the pain that we have experienced so far is just the beginning."
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