"He Cannot Help..."

“A person who has not been completely alienated, who has remained sensitive and able to feel, who has not lost the sense of dignity, who is not yet "for sale", who can still suffer over the suffering of others, who has not acquired fully the having mode of existence - briefly, a person who has remained a person and not become a thing - cannot help feeling lonely, powerless, isolated in present-day society. He cannot help doubting himself and his own convictions, if not his sanity. He cannot help suffering, even though he can experience moments of joy and clarity that are absent in the life of his "normal" contemporaries. Not rarely will he suffer from neurosis that results from the situation of a sane man living in an insane society, rather than that of the more conventional neurosis of a sick man trying to adapt himself to a sick society."

- Erich Fromm, "The Art of Being"

“If other people do not understand our behavior - so what? Their request that we must only do what they understand is an attempt to dictate to us. If this is being "asocial" or "irrational" in their eyes, so be it. Mostly they resent our freedom and our courage to be ourselves. We owe nobody an explanation or an accounting, as long as our acts do not hurt or infringe on them. How many lives have been ruined by this need to "explain," which usually implies that the explanation be "understood," i.e. approved. Let your deeds be judged, and from your deeds, your real intentions, but know that a free person owes an explanation only to himself - to his reason and his conscience - and to the few who may have a justified claim for explanation.”

- Erich Fromm, "The Art of Being"

“It is naively assumed that the fact that the majority of people share certain ideas and feelings proves the validity of these ideas and feelings. Nothing could be further from the truth. Consensual validation as such has no bearing on reason or mental health.”

- Erich Fromm

“That millions of people share the same forms of mental pathology does not make these people sane.”

- Erich Fromm, "The Sane Society"

Bill Bonner, "Into the Wild"

"Into the Wild"

by Bill Bonner

San Martin, Argentina - "Whatever else can be said about it, this must be one of the most interesting and entertaining chapters in the history of central banking. Not since John Law slipped out of Paris in 1720, leaving in the dead of night to avoid an angry mob, has there been anything like it.

Like Law, Jerome Powell has made a huge mess of things. A city slicker in the financial wilderness… with no compass to guide him, other than the Fed’s silly models and claptrap theories… he got hopelessly lost. And now he is caught… trapped, between the inflation he created… and the reckoning he was desperate to avoid.

Inflation has already returned to levels not seen since the 1970s. The Fed needs to stop printing; everybody says so. But if Powell fights inflation, the economy will collapse; it depends on ultra-low interest rates and free-flowing credit. If, on the other hand, he lets inflation rip, the dollar will die… bringing with it financial, social and political chaos.

Occasionally, a trapper or hiker will get stuck in the mountains, far from civilization. He may break a leg… or like Aron Ralston in 2003… may get his arm pinned by a falling boulder. Ralston suffered for days. Then, near death, he had a vision of himself alive… but missing an arm. The next day, he took out his penknife and hacked off his arm, saving his life.

Twice Wrong: In order to escape his trap, Jerome Powell needs to cut away 14 years’ worth of bad policy. Does he have the stomach for it? Could he endure the pain? We doubt it. But both from within the Fed and from the outside world, come hallucinations of successful surgery. Here’s JPMorgan chief, Jamie Dimon, in the Financial Times: "[Dimon] told investors he did not envy the Fed for the steps the US central bank would need to take to end its ultra-loose policies but urged it not to “worry about volatile markets unless they affect the actual economy”. “If the Fed gets it just right, we can have years of growth, and inflation will eventually start to recede. In any event, this process will cause lots of consternation and very volatile markets,” Dimon wrote."

He is wrong on both counts. After bumbling for so many years, there is no chance that the Fed will ‘get it just right.’ Nor is it possible that genuine tightening wouldn’t ‘affect the actual economy.’ Still, Powell’s compadres at the Fed press him to show a little courage. Here’s Bill Dudley, former inflation dove… now suddenly sporting sharp claws:

"Investors should pay closer attention to what Powell has said: Financial conditions need to tighten. If this doesn’t happen on its own (which seems unlikely), the Fed will have to shock markets to achieve the desired response. This would mean hiking the federal funds rate considerably higher than currently anticipated. One way or another, to get inflation under control, the Fed will need to push bond yields higher and stock prices lower."

And here’s another leading Fed voice, Lael Brainard, as reported by the Wall Street Journal: “It is of paramount importance to get inflation down,” Ms. Brainard said Tuesday at a virtual conference hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. “Accordingly, the committee will continue tightening monetary policy methodically through a series of interest-rate increases and by starting to reduce the balance sheet at a rapid pace as soon as our May meeting.”

As of late yesterday afternoon, the Fed was bound and determined to do what needs to be done – and less! Here’s CNN: "The Federal Reserve is ready to raise interest rates at a faster pace to get a handle on America's pervasive inflation problem, according to minutes from the central bank's March meeting released Wednesday. The minutes said “many participants” at the Fed's meeting in March noted they would have preferred a 50 basis point increase to the federal funds rate in light of high inflation."

It almost makes us feel sorry for poor Jerome Powell. He clearly doesn’t know what he is doing. He is, after all, a big city lawyer, lost in a Yellowstone of finance. No hope of rescue. No way out. And the catastrophe is underway… whether he acts or not.

Piles of Cash: The Covid Crisis caused the Fed to do a lot more of what it never should have been doing in the first place – printing money. In the last two years, its balance sheet (where the new money is tallied) rose more than it had in the entire 107 years since it was founded – by over $4 trillion.

The money was then transmitted to Wall Street by buying bonds. But the Fed’s money printing ended last month. Now, as those bonds mature, the Fed’s balance sheet shrinks and America’s money supply shrivels. Quantitative Easing has given way to Quantitative Tightening, which is a whole different thing. And we’re not talking about small amounts. In 2020, the Fed added $3 trillion of new money. Now, that money is scheduled to go away at the rate of nearly $1 trillion per year.

In other words, the Fed giveth. And unless it giveth more and more, what it gaveth will now go back whence it cometh. Along with it will go as much as $50 trillion in fake, new wealth created since 2007… and a whole credit-addled economy, including trillion-dollar federal deficits, meme stocks, buyback programs, NFTs, zombie corporations, million-dollar shacks… and much, much more.

The thought of it must trouble Jerome Powell’s sleep. But what can he do... puff up his courage… and try to remember where he packed his knife. Regards,"

- bonnerprivateresearch@substack.com

○

A Note from BPR Investment Director, Tom Dyson: This 45-year chart perfectly illustrates the Fed's conundrum. The chart shows the latest reading from the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment survey (the blue line), which is a widely watched leading indicator of recessions. I've superimposed the Fed Funds rate (the red line.)

Notice the only other time in 45 years the Fed raised interest rates while consumer sentiment was falling as it is today was in 1979, when Paul Volker was in charge. And the result was back-to-back recessions. And consider, back then, the economy wasn't leveraged. The debt-to-gdp ratio was only 30%. (It's now 120%.) Every other time over the past 45 years when consumer sentiment was falling, the Fed was cutting rates.

What's the point? As Bill said above, the Fed is hopelessly lost. And now it is caught…trapped, between the inflation it created…and the reckoning it was desperate to avoid. How will this situation resolve itself? I don't know. But we're now very close to finding out..."

- bonnerprivateresearch@substack.com

○

"The Fed Has More Money on its Balance Sheet (8.9 trillion) 

Than the Total Value of All 401ks in the United States (7.3 trillion as of 9/21)"

"The Economy is Burning and the Fed Will Put Out the Fire Next Month"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, iAllegedly 4/7/22:

"The Economy is Burning and the Fed

 Will Put Out the Fire Next Month"

"People are furious over the latest student loan payment delay. The eviction moratorium in San Diego is causing huge problems for landlords. The Fed is hoping that they can do a soft landing to help all of us. It doesn’t look possible. Everything is burning and the Fed wants to put the fire out next month."

"Massive Price Increases At Kroger! What's Next? - What's Coming?"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures with Danno, 4/6/22:

"Massive Price Increases At Kroger! 

What's Next? - What's Coming?"

"In today's vlog we are at Kroger and are noticing massive price increases! We are here to check out skyrocketing prices, and a lot of empty shelves! It's getting rough out here as stores seem to be struggling with getting products!"

"There Is Going To Be A New World Disorder"

"There Is Going To Be A New World Disorder"

by Egon von Greyerz

“There is gonna be a new world order out there and we’ve gotta lead it!

And we gotta unite the rest of the world in doing it!”

"That is what Biden proclaimed in a recent speech. But since Biden has a tendency to get his speeches wrong, what he meant to say was: “There is gonna be a new world DIS-order out there and we’ve gotta lead it!" Sadly, as the world has heard in many speeches by the US president, he hasn’t got a clue that his “empire” is collapsing around him. But regrettably for Biden, the US isn’t an empire at all but a bankrupt nation without leadership. But even worse, the US has just in a final act of desperation not just shot itself in the foot but in the head.

Consequences: Very few, if any, of today’s world leaders understand the consequences of their actions and clearly not Biden. As the world is experiencing the end of an economic era, we are getting the leaders that we deserve and thus the appropriate ones to take the world to Armageddon. So the world is now entering the final battle, a battle with totally incompetent heads of state which will lead to everyone losing.

The route to Armageddon will be disastrous for the world. Distressed leaders will take calamitous actions, exacerbating not only their own country’s problem, but also the rest of the world’s. And that is exactly what we are seeing now with the worst possible concoction of debt deficits, currency debasement and decadence. The consequences were of course always predictable based on history. But no leader in the current era is a real student of history. And that is why the world is in such a mess.

Hyperinflation Followed By A Deflationary Depression: I have in many articles outlined the course of events that I see from here – inflation, hyperinflation, debt collapse, asset collapse, leading to economic misery and eventually to a deflationary depression. “All Hell Will Break Loose for Humanity” as I wrote in a recent article.

There will be continued migration, but probably to a lesser extent since there will be no promised lands which will offer the migrants a better life. There will be isolationism and many countries will try to close their borders.

Sadly there will also be wars, cyber, civil and even major military wars. Mankind has never for any longer period stayed away from wars and especially not in periods of economic depression and high debts. Wars are such a wonderful excuse for poor leaders both to print more money and as a blame for the misery that the people suffer.

Western dominated media and propaganda are naturally blaming Putin for the war. And many leaders including Biden want him gone.

Wars Have Built The World: Wars are of course terrible whoever starts them but as I just said, the history of the world is very much based on wars and empire building whether we talk about Persian, Roman, Han, Mongol, Ottoman, Spanish, Russian, or British empires. Many of these empires have been revered for what they achieved and still are today whilst some like the Mongol left very little positive traces for posterity.

The British Empire for example was remarkable. A small island created the biggest empire in history lasting for over 300 years and covering 26% of the world. The cultural and language influence is still significant. Very few voices are heard today requiring that the kings or emperors of those eras to be convicted for war crimes posthumously.

The US never created an empire but unprovoked attacked countries like Vietnam, Iraq, Libya and Syria. Over 300,000 civilians have been killed in these wars led by the US. Whilst virtually the whole Western world considers Putin to be a war criminal, we have not heard similar attacks on the US, UK or French leaders who were involved in the above recent wars.

Without intending to take sides, why should we have different rules or laws for different war criminals? There is clearly not a level playing field.

Cornering A Russian Bear Has Consequences: Coming back to consequences, any intelligent Western leader could have predicted Russia’s recent actions since the Maidan Revolution in Ukraine in 2014. This was when a US and Western led coup ousted the elected Ukrainian leader and government and installed a Western friendly leadership. This coup, combined with new Nato members surrounding Russia, was such a clear threat to Russia that Putin’s reaction was obvious. Cornering a Russian bear is very dangerous.

A strong Western leader and Statesman would have foreseen this and taken up negotiations with Russia. But Western leaders totally ignored all the warnings from Putin and Russia and that is why the world is not just in a mess but in a situation that is geopolitically very dangerous. Some observers argue that the current situation has been engineered by US Neocons in order to start a conflict/war with Russia.

Sanctions Have Consequences: The Roman Empire prospered for centuries due to free trade within and outside. But to sanction a country like Russia which has the world’s greatest natural resources to the extent of $75 trillion is total madness. Even worse when this sanctioned country supplies the energy of almost half of Europe, this is not just shooting yourself in the foot but in the head. See my article “A Global Monetary Inferno of Nuclear Proportions”.

This will not just lead to energy and food shortages in the West but also a massive decline in world trade as well as GDP. The CEO of BASF, the world’s largest chemical producer, said recently: “Cutting off energy from Russia will spiral Germany into its most “catastrophic economic crisis going back to the end of WWII!”

But this should not come as a surprise for students of history. At the end of major economic cycles, countries get the abysmal leaders they deserve and these leaders will show a total lack of both intelligence and statesmanship. So sadly there is not even one leader who is capable of negotiating with Putin. As a matter of fact, the US doesn’t seem to have a leader at all. And Germany’s new leader Scholz had hardly got his feet under the table before he was landed with the small problem that his country gets 55% of its natural gas from its enemy Russia. How inconvenient. Germany clearly never learnt the expression “Don’t bite off the hand that feeds you”.

Both Britain’s Boris “Partygate” Johnson and France’s “Manu” Macron can count themselves lucky that the war took the attention away from their domestic problems.

The US Financial Empire On The Road To Perdition: The US used to be a financial empire but sadly now the country is on the road to perdition. As I have pointed out many times, with the following abysmal figures the US can neither be an economic nor a moral leader of the world:

• Federal debt & deficit growing every year since 1930 (with 4 minor exceptions)

• Since 1971 Federal debt is up 60X from $500billion to $30 trillion

• Total country debt up 53X since 1971 to $90 trillion with GDP up only 22X

• Balance of payment in deficit since early 1970s

It is really astounding that the rest of the world accepts being dictated to by a country that is way past its sell-by date and can only generate false growth by printing endless amounts of worthless money. Before the 1970s the US had a strong economy with a respected currency. But since Nixon closed the gold window in 1971, the US has been on a slippery slope with debt exploding and the currency collapsing.

As the chart below shows, the dollar has lost 88% in real terms (gold) since 1999 and 98% since 1971 (not shown).

The fall to ZERO is guaranteed since all currencies, without exception, have become extinct throughout history. But have we ever heard a central bank head or a president telling their people that the currency is going to become worthless due to their reckless actions? No, of course not. Firstly they don’t understand or study history and secondly no elected politician can ever tell the truth because if they did, they would never be elected.

Just remember “Tricky Dick” Nixon:

Clearly, Nixon had no understanding what happens to money when debt backs the currency rather than gold. Or did he just lie as he had the custom of doing? Regardless, he orchestrated a dollar fall (off the Matterhorn as illustrated above) of 98% with the remaining couple of percent loss down to a 100% happening in the next few years. Biden has with his current disastrous actions created the perfect climate for achieving the final 2% fall of the dollar. But remember that is a 100% fall from here.

Freezing Assets Has Consequences: By demonstrating to world central banks that the US can freeze any country’s foreign exchange reserves held outside their country, the world financial system and central bankers have learnt a lesson that will permanently change the way they do business. No sane country will ever hold their reserves in US dollars or other currencies at a bank that the US government can directly or indirectly control. Nor will countries trust the Swift system which the US can unilaterally manipulate.

The flight from the US dollar will not happen overnight but it will be more rapid than anyone can imagine. No judicious central bank chief will ever consider handing their forex reserves to the US, a bankrupt nation, with a collapsing currency which at a whim can confiscate other countries’ reserves. But not only that, who would ever put their money into US treasuries. Investors would not only lose their total investment on the falling value of the dollar but also on the US as a dodgy debtor which could easily default by debasing the currency to ZERO or extinguish the debt.

Russia saw this coming already some years ago and thus liquidated all their US treasuries. Instead they wisely bought gold. US debt is now entering the Pass The Parcel Game with NO investor wanting to be left holding the parcel.

Consequences our US friends, Consequences! Do you now see that your government has not just shot yourself in the foot but has inflicted your country with a lethal head wound? The collateral damage will clearly lead to a distrust not only in the US but in all governments and all currencies. Globalism is now turning into isolationism."

- https://www.zerohedge.com/

Gregory Mannarino, "Expect The Lies, Distractions, And Propaganda, To Get Much Worse"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 4/7/22:

"Expect The Lies, Distractions, 

And Propaganda, To Get Much Worse"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Musical Interlude: Deuter, "Loving Touch"

Full screen recommended.

Deuter, "Loving Touch"

"FED Is About To Crash Everything Including Housing Market; Credit Card Life Support"

Jeremiah Babe, PM 4/6/22:

"FED Is About To Crash Everything Including 

Housing Market; Credit Card Life Support"

"Will Famine Emerge by Year End? Yes"

Full screen recommended.

Chris Martenson, Peak Prosperity,

"Will Famine Emerge by Year End? Yes"

- https://peakprosperity.com/

"Celente And The Judge: Judge Jackson’s Hearings, Politicians on a Power Trip"

"Celente And The Judge, 4/6/22: 

Judge Jackson’s Hearings, Politicians on a Power Trip"

"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."

- https://trendsresearch.com/

"Nearly 17 Million Dead Chickens And Turkeys And Counting – America’s Bird Flu Pandemic Has Begun!"

Full screen recommended.

"Nearly 17 Million Dead Chickens And Turkeys And Counting –

 America’s Bird Flu Pandemic Has Begun!"

by Epic Economist

"Can you imagine what this country is going to look like if we have severe shortages of chicken and turkey by the end of the year? I don’t know why more people are not alarmed about the horrific bird flu pandemic that is sweeping across America like wildfire right now. On February 8th, the very first case of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) was confirmed in a domestic U.S. flock. Just over one month later, on March 9th, we released a video that lamented the fact that almost 2.8 million birds (mostly chickens and turkeys) had already died during the first month of the pandemic. Unfortunately, since that time things have gotten much, much worse. This pandemic is not even two months old yet, and the death toll for chickens and turkeys has now risen to nearly 17 million.

The frightening thing is that bird flu just keeps popping up in more places around the country and nobody can tell us why it is spreading so rapidly. In fact, the USDA just announced five more outbreaks.

Experts stress that the virus can also cause sudden death in birds, even if they are not showing symptoms. “We’re asking that anyone involved with poultry or egg production, from large farms all the way down to backyard flock, review and implement their biosecurity practices to ensure the health and well-being of their flocks,” Dr. Hall said.

Overall, cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza have now been confirmed in 23 different U.S. states. This plague is completely and utterly out of control, and the word “catastrophic” is not nearly strong enough to describe what we are witnessing. Once a single bird tests positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza, the entire flock must be put down.

In other words, not a single bird can be left alive. Needless to say, the price of eggs is going to go through the roof. I have focused on the United States in this article, but the truth is that bird flu outbreaks are raging all over the globe right now.

When you combine this pandemic with the war in Ukraine, skyrocketing fertilizer prices and disastrous harvests around the planet, it is easy to see that the stage is being set for the sort of nightmarish global food crisis that I have long warned about. It seems like so many things are going horribly wrong all at once, but most people still don’t understand what is happening.

Most people just assume that our grocery stores will always be packed with mountains of extremely cheap food, and so the vast majority of them won’t take any steps to get prepared even though they have been warned again and again about what is coming."

- https://www.epiceconomist.com/

"Planned Starvation - Grain Deliveries by Rail to Be Partially Halted in America" (Excerpt)

"Planned Starvation - Grain Deliveries

by Rail to Be Partially Halted in America"

by Mike Adams

Excerpt: "US rail carriers, we have learned, are right now declaring force majeure and cancelling contracts on their obligations to deliver hundreds of thousands of rail cars of bulk grains to cattle and dairy operations in America. Right now, tens of thousands of dairy animals face starvation within weeks, and grain supplies will be gone in many areas in just a few days. Importantly, if dairy animals are culled because of a lack of grain, it will take many years to rebuild dairy operations to the present level.

Say goodbye to affordable milk, cheese, yogurt and whey protein. Don't forget this also affects infant formula. This is all being done on purpose to create mass chaos and civil unrest, of course."

Please view this complete, highly recommended, article here:

- https://www.naturalnews.com/

"Mere 'Normalization' of Interest Rates Would Nuke The Economy"

"Mere 'Normalization' of Interest Rates Would Nuke The Economy"

by Addison Wiggin

“People of privilege will always risk their complete destruction 

rather than surrender any material part of their advantage.”


— John Kenneth Galbraith

"When price inflation sets in, more workers find it hard to do more than buy gas, pay their rent or mortgage, keep up with credit card debt and medical bills. According to a poll out this morning on CNBC, 1 in 5 working Americans already run out of money between paychecks.

“The economic consequences of this are huge,” our Jim Rickards comments on the report. “If you buy coffee at the grocery store instead of going to Starbucks or go jogging instead of paying a visit to the gym, then service and retail industries all around the country start to suffer.” Decreased spending habits “can be followed by layoffs at some of those outlets and even more cuts in discretionary spending as the laid off workers tighten their belts.” We don’t need an inverted yield curve to tell us the knock on effect on the economy is a recession.

What’s a Fed monetary mandarin to do? In our session this week with Christopher Leonard, author of "The Lords of Easy Money" we ask that very question. Can the Fed afford to raise rates to “curb” inflation? We began the conversation with this chart:

You can quickly see the Fed’s weapon of choice in fighting economic mayhem is to drop the Fed funds rate. Each gray line represents a recession – The stock market Panic of 1987, The Tech Wreck of 2000, The Global Financial Crisis in 2008 and the government inspired economic lockdown of 2020 all led to extended periods of lower rates than the market would dictate… most recently – since 2008 – 0 to negative real rates.

The conundrum for monetary policy enthusiasts is simply put: leave rates too low for too long and you get massive misallocations of capital and supply chain disruptions because the cost of producing goods is not accurately aligned with the demand. You make too much stuff, it sits around in shipping containers and warehouses waiting for demand to catch up.

Throw in a pandemic, you get disruptions of an epic proportion… and price inflation at or approaching historic highs: 

As our guest points out, the current trajectory of price inflation looks eerily similar to the spike immediately following the breakdown of the Bretton Woods exchange rate system in 1971. And again nine years later when Paul Volker was hailed as the great champion over runaway inflation of the time.

“Today’s genius economists,” friend and fellow gloom-and-doomer Marc Faber writes in the April 2022 edition of his excellent "Gloom Boom and Doom" report,” tend to belittle Arthur Burns, who was Fed chair from 1970 to 1978,” making him Volker’s predecessor. “But to be fair to him, Burns increased the fed fund rate to 8% during his tenure. I seriously doubt today’s uneducated Fed members will be able to achieve even an increase to 3%.”

That begs the question, as Faber puts it, can “the Fed possibly increase interest rates sufficiently to curb inflation without endangering the entire financial system?” The answer Marc Faber gives is a resounding “no.”

During our discussion with Christopher Leonard on the current Federal Reserve, the so-called “Powell Fed,” we talked about not just their impotence in the face of drastically rising consumer prices, but their inability to even sell the idea of bringing rates back to historically “normal” levels.

“The most critical element of the Powell Fed,” Christopher says, “is that Jay Powell, when he became Chairman of the Federal Reserve, inherited a project from his predecessor, Janet Yellen, and in a way, her predecessor Ben Bernanke.” That is, he inherited the process of trying to quote, "normalize monetary policy", after years of using low rates as a monetary elixir to save the banking system and then to prop up financial markets.

“The Fed in 2008, 2010, pushed down this very experimental path of keeping interest rates at zero,” says Leonard, “and then critically doing quantitative easing, which is just pumping trillions of dollars into the banking system.” Leonard continues: "The entire time this is happening, it's acknowledged within the Fed, within the top policy committee, the FOMC, that we can't keep doing this forever. We're creating imbalances and distortions in the market. And so we have got to start raising interest rates above zero to a historically normal rate of even three or four percent. While at the same time, we need to start withdrawing some of this high powered money from the Wall Street banking system."

When Jay Powell walked onto the job in 2018 and inherited the process of trying to make things normal again, trying to raise interest rates to a level that's not just normal but even low by historical standards. He's trying to get rates back up to three percent and at the same time, trying to withdraw some of this cash from Wall Street, put in through quantitative easing. That was one of the most fascinating episodes in history, looking at what happened when the Fed really tried to normalize, so to speak, in a concentrated way in 2018, it caused the markets to short circuit and fall.

The Fed hasn't built sprawling infrastructure like the Social Security Administration, we summarize Mr. Leonard, but they have, particularly over the last decade, only expanded its footprint. “In other words,” says Chris, “back in 2008, it was an emergency procedure when the Federal Reserve went out and bought mortgage bonds for the first time in the heat of the crisis in ’08. The Fed buys mortgage bonds directly. That was kind of crazy. They had to actually hire an outside bank to do it for the Fed. But then that became incorporated into standard function. And now the Fed, since COVID, it's been buying $120 billion worth of assets a month, including 40 billion of mortgage bonds.”

Even slowing the asset purchase program, let alone reducing it, has caused apoplectic fits (stress) in the financial system; a system which has lived off the grift of Fed policy for years….long before consumer prices began to get the attention of the 20% of paycheck-to-paycheck workers we began this missive with. Unfortunately, for all, there’s more apoplexy on the way.

If you haven’t already, it’s worth following Chris Leonard on our short journey behind the curtains of the Powell Fed, right here: "The Lords of Easy Money: How The Federal Reserve Broke the American Economy":

"Follow your bliss,"

- WigginSessions@email.5minforecast.com

Gregory Mannarino, "Goldman Sachs Warns On The Market; The Fed Threatens Aggressive Action!"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 4/6/22:

"Goldman Sachs Warns On The Market; 

The Fed Threatens Aggressive Action!"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Musical Interlude: Spirit Tribe Awakening, "Deep Healing Energy - 528Hz Ancient Frequency - Sound Healing Session - Zen Meditation"

Full screen recommended.

Spirit Tribe Awakening,

"Deep Healing Energy - 528Hz Ancient Frequency - 

Sound Healing Session - Zen Meditation"

"Peaceful, empowering and soothing music and nature to nurture your

 mind, body, and soul. Supporting and empowering you on your life journey."

Beautiful...

Musical Interlude: Chuck Wild, "Liquid Mind, Dream Ten

Chuck Wild, "Liquid Mind, Dream Ten”

"Liquid Mind" (aka Chuck Wild) originally wrote this music to deal with the anxiety and stress of overwork and the serious illness of friends. The gentle ebb and flow of the music has an immediate "slowing down" effect, providing a serene escape from tension-filled days. Ideal for stress relief, falling asleep at night and to enhance meditative and therapeutic practices. There are few composers with as much love for slowness in their music as Wild. Chuck draws from classical and pop influences as varying as Beethoven and Brian Eno, Bartok and Rachmaninoff, Bach, Chopin and Fauré, Duruflé and Brahms."

- http://www.liquidmindmusic.com/

"A Look to the Heavens"

“Like delicate cosmic petals, these clouds of interstellar dust and gas have blossomed 1,300 light-years away in the fertile star fields of the constellation Cepheus. Sometimes called the Iris Nebula and dutifully cataloged as NGC 7023 this is not the only nebula in the sky to evoke the imagery of flowers. Still, this remarkable image shows off the Iris Nebula's range of colors and symmetries in impressive detail. Within the Iris, dusty nebular material surrounds a hot, young star.

The dominant color of the brighter reflection nebula is blue, characteristic of dust grains reflecting starlight. Central filaments of the dusty clouds glow with a faint reddish photoluminesence as some dust grains effectively convert the star's invisible ultraviolet radiation to visible red light. Infrared observations indicate that this nebula may contain complex carbon molecules known as PAHs. The bright blue portion of the Iris Nebula is about six light-years across.”

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120929.html

“Get Up Off Your Knees!”

“Get Up Off Your Knees!”

On your knees you may live to see another day, 

but you’ll never live to see better days.

by Robert Gore 

“Zoos are among the saddest places on earth: magnificent but confined creatures on display for gawking crowds, prevented from living out their biological destinies, fed their daily rations, and domesticated beyond where they could ever return to the wild. You have to feel pity and sorrow for these innocent prisoners; they’d flee in a heartbeat if they could.

Humans have made themselves inmates – whether of a zoo, prison, or asylum is hard to say, likely a combination of all three. Animals earn our admiration because they resist losing their freedom. Humans occasionally do too, but usually surrender theirs for promises and trifles. The promises are broken and the trifles grow more trifling as humanity for the most part gives up. Keep people amused and make sure the rations don’t stop and no outrage rousts them to try to reclaim their birthright. When they visit the zoo, the animals stare back at them with contempt.

In this country, we sing, “Sweet land of liberty,” and, “The land of the free, and the home of the brave.” We incant “freedom” and “liberty” during election seasons, but anything beyond that is considered embarrassing, bad form. A legislator denouncing a proposed law as an infringement of freedom would be regarded as a lunatic. Millions of pages of federal, state, and local laws and regulations already infringe freedom. The denouncer might be irrefutably right, but his denunciation would be irrelevant.

While wildlife should be free in the wild, coping with the risks to the best of their capabilities, humans are supposedly unsuited for freedom. Free humans might develop their own talents and capabilities, produce, exchange, exercise their rights, and engage in voluntary association and social intercourse, all unsupervised. You can argue that such activities are generally beneficial. However, there is a special class who are permitted to supervise and coerce the rest of us, to curtail our freedom. This special class ensures fairness or equality or some such thing. Who knows what might happen without them. Think of the dangers!

Just consider the concept of people deciding what’s in their own best interest. A hyphenated word lurks: self-interest. The special people are motivated by everything but self-interest, or so they say. Indeed, nobility of motive justifies their power and the destruction of your liberty. The desire to better your life is selfish, unlike the impulses supposedly animating those holding the guns to your head. After widespread surrender, few champion their right to their own lives, which is selfish after all, or challenge the special people’s moral superiority, which confers their right to hold the guns.

It might mitigate moral condemnation for liberty’s surrender if it had produced some benefit for those waving the white flag. An old bromide has it that liberty is irrelevant when people are starving. Nothing is further from the truth; it’s freedom that feeds people, creates wealth, and advances humanity. The historical record offers ample proof. It’s the absence of liberty that produces starvation, poverty, decay, destruction, genocide, and war. Here too the historical record is clear, one need go no farther back than the last century. During this ascendancy of the special people, humanity fought its two deadliest wars and over a hundred million were murdered, victims of special plans for a better world.

But somehow it’s liberty that’s dangerous. Fortunately the special people still rule, to make sure it doesn’t break out somewhere. Their reign assures that this century will challenge the last for the title: Century of Slaughter. They see their subjects are domesticated draft animals, just smart enough to keep economies running, not smart enough to challenge domestication. However, it’s been free minds and free markets, not draft animals, that have produced the wonders that make modern life modern. Welfare states are halfway houses to totalitarianism. As they grow, liberty shrinks and progress slows, stops, and reverses, the deterioration culminating in either anarchy or tyranny.

Judging from the prevalence of terms like “secular stagnation” and the “end of growth,” we are in the stop phase and reversal is nigh. People have seen their freedom shrink and have borne the consequences, although most don’t make the connection between the two. Incomes have stagnated, opportunities have diminished, life grows ever coarser, and fear of a looming apocalypse pervades the popular consciousness. Many are preparing for a future in which modernity is no longer modern, where access to necessities and conveniences cannot be taken for granted. Guns and gold are at the top of checklists, for a day when the inevitable failure of the special people leads to the inevitable tyranny or anarchy.

The discontent sweeping the planet is recognition that things are wrong on multiple fronts, although recognition of the root cause is rare. The idea that changing the hands on the levers offers solutions is magical thinking. The problems stem from granting the special people the levers in the first place. They may be replaced, but once the replacements have their hands on the levers, they’ll feel special, too. Power assuredly corrupts.

We’re closer to the real solution in the lament: “Why can’t they just leave us alone?” They – the special people – must leave us alone, it’s our moral right. Those who think the collapse will never come, or that freedom can be reclaimed without a fight, delude themselves. The craven adage: It’s better to live on one’s knees than die on one’s feet, offers a false choice. On your knees you may live to see another day, but you’ll never live to see better days. You may die on your feet, but liberty offers the only hope for better days. It’s worth fighting for. It’s worth dying for.”

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

We are many, they are few...

"Do You Believe..."

“Do you believe,’ said Candide, ‘that men have always massacred each other as they do today, that they have always been liars, cheats, traitors, ingrates, brigands, idiots, thieves, scoundrels, gluttons, drunkards, misers, envious, ambitious, bloody-minded, calumniators, debauchees, fanatics, hypocrites, and fools?”

“Do you believe,” said Martin, “that hawks have always eaten pigeons when they have found them?”

- Voltaire

"Ex Obscurum"

Full screen recommended.

"Ex Obscurum"

by Spadecaller

"From emotional turmoil, hatred, and addiction the miracle of recovery begins in this Spadecaller Video entitled "Ex Obscurum" ("From Darkness"). Featuring original poetry narrated by the author and visual artist, Matthew Schwartz. Composer Samuel Barber's powerful musical score, adapted for the movie "Platoon", (Adagio for Strings, Op. 11) sets the background for this spiritual exodus "From Darkness."

"Streets of Philadelphia: On a Cloudy Day, April 6, 2022"

Full screen recommended.

"Streets of Philadelphia: On a Cloudy Day, April 6, 2022"

"The Notion Of Democracy..."

The Bosses of the Senate

"Democracy has become a weapon of moneyed interests. It uses the media to create the illusion that there is consent from the governed. The notion of democracy is often no different than living under a plutocracy or a government by wealthy elites.”

- Oswald Spengler, "The Decline of the West"

○

Hat tip to Jesse's Cafe Americain,

- https://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/

The Daily "Near You?"

Clarkson, Kentucky, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Nothing Happens..."

"Nothing happens to anyone that he is not fitted by nature to bear."

- Marcus Aurelius

The Poet: Mary Oliver, “Evidence”

“Evidence”

“Where do I live?
 

If I had no address, as many people do not,
 

I could nevertheless say that I lived in the 

same town as the lilies of the field,
 

and the still waters.


Spring, and all through the neighborhood 

now there are
 strong men tending flowers.

Beauty without purpose is beauty without virtue.


But all beautiful things, inherently, have this function -


to excite the viewers toward sublime thought.


Glory to the world, that good teacher.

Among the swans there is none 

called the least,
 or the greatest.

I believe in kindness. Also in mischief.
 

Also in singing, 

especially when singing is not necessarily prescribed.

As for the body, 

it is solid and strong and curious and full of detail;
 

it wants to polish itself; it wants to love another body;


it is the only vessel in the world that can hold,
 

in a mix of power and sweetness:


words, song, gesture, passion, ideas,
ingenuity, 

devotion, merriment, vanity, and virtue.

Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable.”

- Mary Oliver

○

“We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for! To quote from Whitman, ‘O me! O life! of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless - of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life?’ Answer: That you are here - that life exists, and that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?”

- “Dead Poets Society”

"I Hope I End Up..."

“I don’t want to pass through life like a smooth plane ride. All you do is get to breathe and copulate and finally die. I don’t want to go with the smooth skin and the calm brow. I hope I end up a blithering idiot cursing the sun- hallucinating, screaming, giving obscene and inane lectures on street corners and public parks. People will walk by and say, “Look at that drooling idiot. What a basket case.” I will turn and say to them, “It is you who are the basket case! For every moment you hated your job, cursed your wife and sold yourself to a dream that you didn’t even conceive. For the times your soul screamed yes and you said no. For all of that. For your self-torture, I see the glowing eyes of the sun! The air talks to me! I am at all times!” And maybe, the passers by will drop a coin into my cup.”

- Henry Rollins

Bill Bonner, "Parable of Plenty"

"Parable of Plenty"

by Bill Bonner

“Them that has, gits.”

San Martin, Argentina - "And so it came to pass in the Year of Our Lord, 2008, the Fed panicked. In its hysteria, it bestowed on the rich such gifts as the world had never seen. The US stock market rose 5 times higher. Or, people with capital assets added about $84 trillion to their wealth since 2007.

Many times over the past 14 years have we bemoaned the unfairness of it. The Fed had no wealth to give. Its generosity towards those in the wealthiest zip codes had to be exercised at the expense of others – namely, those in the others. This was accomplished via what is known as the “inflation tax.” The Fed and other central banks ‘printed’ some $25 trillion in new money, which was funneled into the financial markets by buying bonds (owned mostly by the rich)… and then used to buy stocks and other financial assets (also owned mostly by the rich). The rich got richer as their assets increased in value.

Money-printing and bond-buying had other effects too. They queered the financial system, added $50 trillion to America’s trash pile of debt, accustomed the economy to below-zero (adjusted for inflation) interest rates, and caused consumer prices to rise at the fastest rate in 40 years.

But our theme today is only this: there’s always more to the story. And it’s usually the part that few want to hear. For whatever virtuous, practical and high-minded thing the Fed thought it was doing, it was actually shifting wealth from those who earned it to those with brokerage accounts. Unintended consequences? Perhaps.

More Gittin’: Meanwhile, the Covid story has disappeared from the headlines. Thank God… we were getting tired of it. Now we have a new crisis… a new bete noire – Russia. This time, ‘them that has’ – the influencers… the deciders – have put us on the side of the angels… to do battle against the devilish Russkies. But there’s more to that story too… and more gittin’ to be gotten by those who already have.

Two full years have passed since the Covid-19 first made landfall in the US. As more of the story comes out, we see that it too was largely a transfer from the poor to the rich. For instance, wasn’t it strange that some countries – even those with very low standards of public health… in Asia and Africa, for example… had very low rates of Covid? Why? About a year ago came this report from CNN: "The risk of death from Covid-19 is about 10 times higher in countries where most of the population is overweight, according to a report released Wednesday by the World Obesity Federation.

Researchers found that by the end of 2020, global Covid-19 death rates were more than 10 times higher in countries where more than half the adults are overweight, compared to countries where fewer than half are overweight. The team examined mortality data from Johns Hopkins University (JHU) and the World Health Organization (WHO) and found that of 2.5 million Covid-19 deaths reported by the end of February, 2.2 million were in countries where more than half the population is overweight.

In an analysis of data and studies from more than 160 countries, the researchers found that Covid-19 mortality rates increased along with countries' prevalence of obesity. They note that the link persisted even after adjusting for age and national wealth.

In the US, the average person consumes 3,800 calories per day. And the US suffered one of the highest death tolls from Covid in the world – nearly 3,000/million. In Bangladesh, where ‘plus-size’ clothes are missing from the fashion racks, the disease was barely noticed, with only 175/million."

But while shutting down the world economy in 2020 may or may not have reduced the death toll for well-fed people, it almost certainly increased the number of poor people who died of starvation. We have no figures and no proof. But 9 million people are said to die from malnutrition and hunger-related diseases each year. All it would take would be an 11% increase… and a million more people would die.

And now, here’s more bad news for hungry people. Fox News: "Goya Foods CEO Bob Unanue warned on "Fox & Friends Weekend" Sunday that the war between Russia and Ukraine is having a "devastating effect" on food supply as shortages are expected to contribute to higher inflation."

President Biden said last month that a food shortage is "gonna be real" following the sanctions that were placed on Russia by the U.S. government as a result of Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion into Ukraine. "With regard to food shortage, yes we did talk about food shortages, and it's gonna be real," Biden said during a press conference at a NATO summit in Brussels, Belgium, following a meeting with other world leaders. "The price of the sanctions is not just imposed upon Russia," he added. "It’s imposed upon an awful lot of countries as well, including European countries and our country as well."

Unintended Consequences: The price of wheat has shot up from $7.50 a bushel in January to over $10 today. A poor person in Bangladesh may have been able to afford 1,500 calories per day last year… and stayed alive, barely. With the cost/calorie up by a third… his daily allotment may now fall to only 1,000 calories per day – not enough to survive.

In Iraq, before the US invasion, an estimated 500,000 children were said to have died because of US sanctions. Then-Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, thought that was a fair price to pay for the benefits of the sanctions, whatever they were. A half a million deaths were “worth it,” she told “60 Minutes” in 1996.

And now, the fat countries congratulate themselves on their tough sanctions against Russia. Foreign policy ‘experts’ explain what a great and glorious war it is. America’s defense industry jefes look for lavish vacation homes in Aspen or North Carolina’s Outer Banks. Politicians look forward to more campaign contributions. And skinny people tighten their belts."

- bonnerprivateresearch@substack.com

"A Recession is Going to Happen - But First, More Free Money"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, iAllegedly 4/6/22:

"A Recession is Going to Happen - But First, More Free Money"

"Over 1000 investors business feel that a worldwide recession is imminent. They feel that Europe will feel it first. But first, more free money. Student loan payments are extended once again and there is free rent."

"How It Really Is"

Uh huh...

"The Wealth Effect And The 92%"

"The Wealth Effect And The 92%"

by Addison Wiggin

“Just as sound money goes hand in hand with liberalism, free trade, capitalism, and peace, so is inflationism part and parcel of imperialism, militarism, protectionism and socialism.”

– Ludwig von Mises

"Yesterday, we left off with a paper published by the San Francisco Fed blaming our current inflationary environment on wanton government spending during the government imposed lock downs. Today we introduce another paper issued by the San Fran Fed, this one authored by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who was the Fed Governor in San Fran in 2005. In it, she describes “the wealth effect” a component in the Federal Reserve’s strategy for keeping the economy afloat.

The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) described the Fed policy like this: “The ‘wealth effect’ is the notion that when households become richer as a result of a rise in asset values, such as corporate stock prices or home values, they spend more and stimulate the broader economy.”

Does it work? Depends on your point of view. Wolf Richter, from whom we borrowed the chart below, describes it as “the greatest economic injustice committed in recent US history.” In introducing his Wealth Effect Monitor, Richter points out that “since March 2020, the Fed printed $4.9 trillion and repressed short-term interest rates to near-zero in order to inflate asset prices so that the asset holders would get immensely more wealthy, in line with its doctrine of the Wealth Effect.

Yesterday, Wolf updated his monitor. The average wealth (assets minus debts) per household, defined by the Census bureau by category in Q4, 2021:

• Top “1%” household (red): $36.2 million.

• The 2% to 10% household (yellow): $4.68 million.

• The “next 40%” household (purple): $775,000.

• The “bottom 50%” household (green): $59,000.

Looking at the chart, following along with their “wealth effect” strategy, the Fed helped “the wealthy got immensely wealthier. Everyone else paid for it via rampant inflation.” In an attempt to salvage their academic experiment in financial cosmetics, they heaped nothing but adversity on over 92% of the population. (We encourage you to take a deeper look at Wolf’s “Wealth Effect Monitor”, here.)

Janet Yellen’s explanation of the Wealth Effect came prior to the massive bailouts in 2008. Jeffrey Tucker explains in Friday’s Daily Prophecy, the difference between those bailouts to the same policy choices during the pandemic: “The state of denial dates back to 2008. Last time there was a huge crisis and the Fed unleashed monetary expansion on a dramatic scale, they observed continued downward pressure on prices. Then, the entire point of the policy was to re-capitalize the banking system. There was no macroeconomic agenda. The Fed wanted to save the system from collapse. The markets loved it.”

Fast forward to the pandemic lockdowns. Different story, same policy solution with a disastrous effect. “The expansions of 2020 and 2021 were entirely different,” Tucker maintains, “Congress spent money it did not have. Trillions and trillions. That spending was debt financed. The Fed stepped up to buy the debt. The money was dropped directly into bank accounts of both business and consumers. It became very hot. The Fed felt it had no real choice. They pointed to Congress as the culprit.” Hence, the San Fran’s report placing the blame at Congress’ feet.

Now the Fed is between a rock and a hard place. If they try to “normalize” interest rates, our Wiggin Sessions guest this week Christopher Leonard suggests, the Fed could “nuke the entire economy.” Get Mr. Leonard’s full explanation, right here."

"Follow your bliss,"

- WigginSessions@email.5minforec