Full screen recommended.
Deuter, "Along the High Ridges"
Beautiful!
So, we rise from the rubble...
Friday, September 24, 2021
"A Look to the Heavens"
"Have you contemplated your home galaxy lately? If your sky looked like this, perhaps you'd contemplate it more often! The featured picture is actually a composite of two images taken from the same location in south Brazil and with the same camera - but a few hours apart. The person in the image - also the astrophotographer - has much to see in the Milky Way Galaxy above.
Click image for larger size.
The central band of our home Galaxy stretches diagonally up from the lower left. This band is dotted with spectacular sights including dark nebular filaments, bright blue stars, and red nebulas. Millions of fainter and redder stars fill in the deep Galactic background. To the lower right of the Milky Way are the colorful gas and dust clouds of Rho Ophiuchi, featuring the bright orange star Antares. On this night, just above and to the right of Antares was the bright planet Jupiter. The sky is so old and so familiar that humanity has formulated many stories about it, some of which inspired this very picture."
Chet Raymo, “The Seeds of Contemplation”
“The Seeds of Contemplation”
by Chet Raymo
“Do a Google search for “Cuthbert” and you’ll get two main hits: a stunning blonde Canadian actress who I never heard of, and the 7th-century Anglo-Saxon monk I was looking for. Make that an image search and poor Saint Cuthbert gets washed away in a sea of unclad sexiness that would probably have rattled the poor abbot/bishop to his core.
Well, we don’t really know, do we? We don’t really know what was on Saint Cuthbert’s mind. Certainly he had an impressive career as a Church administrator, but be seems to have been irresistibly drawn to the life of an anchorite. For a while he was prior at the famous abbey of Lindisfarne on the coast of Northumbria, then bishop of the same place, but he gave all that up for a solitary cell on the nearby island of Farne. According to tradition, his severe abode had no windows or doors, and no views of scenery or humans. It was circular and open only to the sky. There Cuthbert lived, like a mouse at the bottom of a coffee can.
Was his mouse-eye view of the sky enough to feed his soul? Presumably he didn’t see rainbows, since rainbows don’t appear near the zenith. He was far enough north (56° 37′) not to see the sun at all, even in summer, depending on how wide was the angle of his view of the sky. Only a few bright stars illuminated his night: Capella, Vega, and Deneb (taking into account the 18 degrees of precession since his time). In late summer the Milky Way would have been draped overhead, although- alas- the least bright part of the galaxy. The aurora would have entertained him on occasion, and “shooting stars.”
How much is enough? Thoreau had his pond, and dinner at the Emersons whenever he wanted. Henry Beston had the whole wide sea crashing outside his “outermost” house on Cape Cod. Annie Dillard’s Tinker Creek was in a valley, but her patch of sky was supplemented by woods and fields and the always changing theater of the creek itself. Many of us have longed at one time or another for greater simplicity, for a life lived deliberately, for the intensely-experienced few rather than the trivialized many. It’s all a matter of finding the balance, between the harsh parsimony of the anchorite’s cell and the rush and clutter of 21st-century, media-saturated overload.”
"Our Task..."
“We have not overcome our condition, and yet we know it better. We know that we live in contradiction, but we also know that we must refuse this contradiction and do what is needed to reduce it. Our task as humans is to find the few principles that will calm the infinite anguish of free souls. We must mend what has been torn apart, make justice imaginable again in a world so obviously unjust, give happiness a meaning once more to peoples poisoned by the misery of the century. Naturally, it is a superhuman task. But superhuman is the term for tasks we take a long time to accomplish, that’s all.
Let us know our aims then, holding fast to the mind, even if force puts on a thoughtful or a comfortable face in order to seduce us. The first thing is not to despair. Let us not listen too much to those who proclaim that the world is at an end. Civilizations do not die so easily, and even if our world were to collapse, it would not have been the first. It is indeed true that we live in tragic times. But too many people confuse tragedy with despair. “Tragedy,” D.H. Lawrence said, “ought to be a great kick at misery.” This is a healthy and immediately applicable thought. There are many things today deserving such a kick.”
- Albert Camus
Gregory Mannarino, PM 9/24/21: "ALERT: Be Ready People. Expect A Second LARGER Wave Of Inflation To Hit"
Gregory Mannarino, PM 9/24/21:
"ALERT: Be Ready People.
Expect A Second LARGER Wave Of Inflation To Hit"
"The Last Time Always Happens Now"
"The Last Time Always Happens Now"
by David Cain
"William Irvine, an author and philosophy professor I’m a big fan of, often tries to point people towards a little-discussed fact of human life: "You always know when you’re doing something for the first time, and you almost never know when you’re doing something for the last time."
There was, or will be, a last time for everything you do, from climbing a tree to changing a diaper, and living with a practiced awareness of that fact can make even the most routine day feel like it’s bursting with blessings. Of all the lasting takeaways from my periodic dives into Stoicism, this is the one that has enhanced my life the most. I’ve touched on it before in my Stoicism experiment log and in a Patreon post, and I intend to write about it many more times in the future (but who can say?)
To explain why someone might want to start thinking seriously about last times, Bill Irvine asks us to imagine a rare but relatable event: going to your favorite restaurant one last time, knowing it’s about to close up for good.
Predictably, dining on this last-ever night makes for a much richer experience than almost all the other times you’ve eaten at that restaurant, but it’s not because the food, decor, or service is any different than usual. It’s better because you know it’s the last time, so you’re apt to savor everything you can about it, right down to the worn menus and tacky napkin rings. You’re unlikely to let any mistakes or imperfections bother you, and in fact you might find them endearing.
It becomes clearer than ever, in other words, how great it was while it lasted, and how little the petty stuff mattered. On that last dinner, you can set aside minor issues with ease, and appreciate even the most mundane details. Anything else would seem foolish, because you’re here now, and this is it. It might even occur to you that there’s no reason you couldn’t have enjoyed it this much every time you dined here – except that all the other times, you knew there would be more times, so you didn’t have to be so intentional about appreciating it.
That’s an exceptionally rare situation though. Almost always, we do things for the last time without knowing it’s the last time. There was a last time – on an actual calendar date – when you drew a picture with crayons purely for your own pleasure. A last time you excitedly popped a Blockbuster rental into your VCR. A last time you played fetch with a certain dog. Whenever the last time happened, it was “now” at the time.
You’ve certainly heard the heart-wrenching insight that there’s always a last time a parent picks up their child. By a certain age the child is too big, which means there’s always an ordinary day when the parent picks up and puts down their child as they have a thousand times before, with no awareness that it was the last time they would do it.
Ultimately there will be as many last times as there were first times. There will be last time you do laundry. A last time you eat pie. A last time you visit a favorite neighborhood, city, or country. For every single friend you’ve ever had, there will be a last time you talk, or maybe there already has been.
For ninety-nine percent of these last times, you will have no idea that that’s what it is. It will seem like another of the many middle times, with a lot more to come. If you knew it was the last-ever time you spoke to a certain person or did a certain activity, you’d probably make a point of appreciating it, like a planned last visit to Salvatore’s Pizzeria. You wouldn’t spend it thinking about something else, or let minor annoyances spoil it.
Many last times are still a long way in the future, of course. The trouble is you don’t know which ones. The solution, Irvine suggests, is to frequently imagine that this is the last time, even when it’s probably not. A few times a day, whatever you’re doing, you assume you’re doing that thing for the last time. There will be a last time you sip coffee, like you’re doing now. What if this sip was it? There will be a last time you walk into the office and say hi to Sally. If this was it, you might be a little more genuine, a little more present.
The point isn’t to make life into a series of desperate goodbyes. You can go ahead and do the thing more or less normally. You might find, though, that when you frame it as a potential last time, you pay more attention to it, and you appreciate it for what it is in a way you normally don’t. It turns out that ordinary days are full of experiences you expect will keep happening forever, and of course none of them will.
It doesn’t matter if the activity is something you particularly love doing. Walking into a 7-11 or weeding the garden is just as worthy of last-time practice as hugging a loved one. Even stapling the corner of some pages together can generate a sense of appreciation, if you saw it as your final act of stapling in a life that’s contained a surprising amount of stapling.
Irvine uses mowing the lawn as an example, a task he doesn’t love doing. If you imagine that this is the last time you’ll mow the lawn, rather than consider it a good riddance, you might realize that there will be a time when you’ve mown your last lawn, and that there were a lot of great things about living in your lawn-mowing, bungalow-maintaining heyday. A few seconds later, it dawns on you that you still are.
You can get very specific with the experiences you do this with. The last time you roll cookie dough between your palms. The last time you get rained on. The last time you sidestep down a crowded cinema aisle. The last time your jeans smell like campfire smoke. The last time your daughter says “swannich” instead of “sandwich.” Virtually everything is a worthy candidate for this reflection.
It always brings perspective to your life as it is now, and it never gets old. It’s an immensely rewarding exercise, but it not a laborious one. It takes only two or three seconds - allowing yourself “a flickering thought,” as Irvine put it - to notice what you’re doing right now, and consider the possibility that this is indeed the last escalator ride at Fairfield Mall, the last time you put on a Beatles record, the last time you encounter a squirrel, or the last time you parallel park in front of Aunt Rita’s building."
○
The Poet: Mary Oliver, "What I Have Learned So Far"
"What I Have Learned So Far"
"Meditation is old and honorable, so why should I
not sit, every morning of my life, on the hillside,
looking into the shining world? Because, properly
attended to, delight, as well as havoc, is suggestion.
Can one be passionate about the just, the
ideal, the sublime, and the holy, and yet commit
to no labor in its cause? I don't think so.
All summations have a beginning, all effect has a
story, all kindness begins with the sown seed.
Thought buds toward radiance. The gospel of
light is the crossroads of - indolence, or action.
Be ignited, or be gone."
~ Mary Oliver
"And Never, Never To Forget..."
"To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never, to forget."
- Arundhati Roy
"When Anything Goes, Everything Goes"
"When Anything Goes, Everything Goes"
by Bill Bonner
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND – "What we’ve been looking at this week is “how the world ends.” And today, we meet a woman who intends to kill it – the exterminating angel herself – Saule Omarova. Born in Kazakhstan, educated in Moscow, Madison, and Chicago, and now nominated by the Biden Team to head up its OCC (Office of the Comptroller of the Currency). Ms. Omarova makes no effort to disguise what she is up to. She says she aims to “effectively ‘end banking’ as we know it.” That is, she wants to replace an entire industry – one that evolved over hundreds of years, thanks to the efforts of thousands of innovating, competing bankers… who served millions of willing customers – with some monster of her own invention.
Redesigning Finance: But destroying “banking” is just the beginning of her ambitions. She has never worked for a bank, never run a business… never satisfied a customer, started a company, or “made payroll” for one…and never even held a job outside of academia or the law (we’re not counting her time as “special adviser” for Regulatory Policy to the Under Secretary for Domestic Finance in 2006-2007 as a real job). And yet, she thinks she knows what is best for you, and 330 million other Americans (and perhaps the whole world)… and intends to give it to us, whether we want it or not. She explains:
"My new working paper […] advocates a comprehensive reform of the structure and systemic function of the Fed’s balance sheet as the basis for redesigning the core architecture of modern finance. It offers a blueprint for transforming the Fed’s balance sheet into what it calls the People’s Ledger: the ultimate public platform for generating, modulating, and allocating sovereign credit and money in a democratic economy."
Holy moly. She thinks modern finance was “designed”… and that she has the right to redesign it, allocating money as she sees fit. Yes, she proposes to be the decider, not just for the government, but for the private sector, too.
In particular, she proposes setting up something similar to the Gosplan in the Soviet Union, a “National Investment Authority,” (NIA) that would be responsible for “formulating, financing, and executing a coordinated strategy of sustainable and socially inclusive economic development.” In other words, the feds have made such wonderful investments these many years… let’s give them more money to invest!
Soviet-Era Import: But wait, there’s more… "The NIA “would act directly in financial markets as a lender, guarantor, securitizer, and venture capitalist with a broad mandate to mobilize, amplify, and direct public and private capital to where it’s needed most.”
Yes, she’s proposing a Gosbank, the Soviet Union’s central bank, too. And why not? Central planning worked so well in the Soviet Union. How nice of Ms. Omarova to bring it with her – to America. And now, like kudzu or the spotted lanternfly, it’s taking over. How’s that for the End of the World As We Have Known It?
Anything Goes: Of course, the world itself is not really ending. So what if inflation goes to 3% or 5%… or 10%, for that matter? So what if the feds waste a few trillion dollars more? And who cares if another moron goes to Washington?
We Diary readers are mostly older and mostly white; we have our savings, our stocks, our pensions, our insurance policies… and even Social Security to support us. And our houses are much more valuable than they used to be. So we won’t be too hurt in the next crisis, will we?
Besides, we’ve already been through three crises so far this century… What's another one, more or less? And yet, here we are… on the other side of the Rubicon. The fundamental principles that guided the American Republic – the rules and institutions we grew up with – are being chucked in the river.
Now, it’s “anything goes.” And when anything goes… everything goes with it. The next major selloff will probably give Ms. Omarova the crisis she is looking for. And it may not be far off. The Chinese are facing a 1929-style debt crisis. The U.S. is up against its own debt ceiling; if it isn’t raised, experts say the results will be “catastrophic.” There will be panic and hysteria. Then, the OCC chief – and other elite world-improvers who created the problem – will tell us how capitalism and free markets have failed…and roll out their cockamamie solution.
Gates of Hell: Let’s look at how it might play out. Inflationary increases of 3%… or 5%… won’t mean much – in themselves. But house prices are already rising at 18% year-on-year. Producer prices are up at an annual 8% rate. And now that inflation is out of the bag, it will be impossible to stuff it back in. In the next crisis, this inflation will add a critical new dimension to the Federal Reserve’s problems. That is, as in the last three crises of this century, the Fed will come riding to the rescue. It will “print” more money and try to boost stock prices – just as it did in 2001, 2009, and 2020.
But in none of those cases was inflation a problem, too. And when investors see the Fed supporting the economy with more money – as it must – it will be obvious that the Fed is trapped. Inflate or die. The Fed will inflate… and let the dollar (and bonds) die.
Obituaries for the bond market will appear in every financial publication. An even greater panic will take hold. Different political factions will clash in the streets. And the masses will turn their tired eyes to Washington, pleading… “Help us… Save us… Touch us… Heal us.”
And then, like Vladimir Lenin arriving in Petrograd in 1917… or Fidel Castro washing up on the shores near Niquero, Cuba, in 1956, Ms. Omarova’s hour will come around at last. And guided by crackpots and grifters… the U.S. will step gingerly through the gates of Hell, like so many nations before it. More to come…"
"Decide..."
“We're all going to die. We don't get much say over how or when, but we do get to decide how we're gonna live. So, do it. Decide. Is this the life you want to live? Is this the person you want to love? Is this the best you can be? Can you be stronger? Kinder? More Compassionate? Decide. Breathe in. Breathe out and decide.”
- “Richard”, “Grey’s Anatomy”
"Fiscal Cliffs will Impact the Markets - This is the Time to Play It Safe"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly, AM 9/24/21:
"Fiscal Cliffs will Impact the Markets -
This is the Time to Play It Safe"
"There are so many fiscal cliffs that are out there. Some have ended and some end soon. The next one is Mortgage Forbearance. It ends September 30th, 2021. People need to realize this is going to affect so much of our financial system as well as the real estate markets."
"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"
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…"
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