"Don't wonder why people go crazy. Wonder why they don't.
In the face of what we can lose in a day, in an instant,
wonder what the hell it is that makes us hold it together."
- "Grey's Anatomy"
So, we rise from the rubble...
Tuesday, September 27, 2022
Monday, September 26, 2022
"Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse On The March" (Excerpt)
"Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse
On The March" (Excerpt)
by Jim Quinn
“The least-bad scenario is a hard landing, global recession worse than the 1930s. The worst-case borrows from the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: war, famine, pestilence, and death.” - Kenneth S. Deffeye
“When hopes and dreams are loose in the streets, it is well for the timid to lock doors, shutter windows and lie low until the wrath has passed. For there is often a monstrous incongruity between the hopes, however noble and tender, and the action which follows them. It is as if ivied maidens and garlanded youths were to herald the four horsemen of the apocalypse.”
- Eric Hoffer
Excerpt: "I don’t pretend to be a biblical scholar or have any particular expertise in interpreting scriptures, and certainly not the Book of Revelation, supposedly written by John of Patmos during the reign of Roman emperor Domitian sometime between 81 AD and 96 AD. But I did suffer through twelve years of Catholic school, with plenty of time reading the bible for homework assignments. I know many people take everything in the bible literally. I do not adhere to that understanding. I believe most, if not all, of the bible is parables and symbolism written by men as a means to guide early Christians in how they should live their lives. The wisdom imparted by these writers is vast and deep. The Book of Revelation is the most apocalyptic, mysterious, and prophetic.
I would agree with scholars who say Revelation does not refer to actual people or events but is an allegory of the spiritual path and the ongoing struggle between good and evil. But, as our modern-day world seems to be coming apart at the seams, the battle between good and evil is reaching a zenith, only seen at crucial turning points in history.
The scale of propaganda designed to mislead the public, scope of deceit exhibited by our hand-picked leaders, level of wickedness in the purposeful destruction of economic systems based on climate crisis lies, purposeful infliction of pain and suffering upon the masses through destruction of conventional food and energy structures, implosion of the financial system due to incompetence and/or willfully malicious motivations, and incessant provocations of Russia and China designed to ignite a global conflagration, are all part of one demonic plan.
Knowing we are reaching the most violent phase of this Fourth Turning and this kind of horrendous whirlwind has occurred during the fall of previous empires, does not make it any easier to confront or endure.
As the stock market implodes, draining the retirement savings of working men and women once again, inflation rages out of control, pushing lower and middle class families to the brink, our senile Trojan horse president, implements a country destroying agenda at the behest of his globalist handlers designed to incite a civil war, and the Deep State/Military Industrial Complex attempts to monetize Ukraine and Taiwan to fill their coffers with billions in war profits, the world teeters on the brink of a collapse which will make the Great Depression/World War II era seem like a walk in the park.
And very few people see it coming or are prepared in any way for the consequences. They have spent too much time in government school indoctrination centers, soaked up too much propaganda spewed by the corporate legacy media doing the bidding of those in power, have been misinformed and misled by the left wing Silicon Valley social media conglomerates, and are too distracted by their gadgets, social media likes, fake reality TV, and modern day sports circuses.
I’m certainly not predicting the end times or second coming of Christ, but the parable of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse sure seems applicable in this modern-day Crisis – the latest times that try men’s souls. We are in a time of Crisis, just as we were in the 1780’s, 1860’s, and 1940’s, all 80 years apart. The 2020’s will also go down in history as a time of fateful decisions, great battles, heroes, villains, and ultimately a purging of the existing social order - to be replaced by something better or far worse."
Full article is here:
"Brace For October Stock Market Crash As All Hell Is Breaking Loose"
Full screen recommended.
"Brace For October Stock Market
Crash As All Hell Is Breaking Loose"
by Epic Economist
"Carnage is still underway in financial markets, and investors are rushing for the exits and repositioning while they still can because another painful stock market crash is on the horizon. In recent weeks, a massive sell-off accelerated after corporate earnings projections dropped below expectations, but things have gotten significantly more turbulent last Wednesday when the Federal Reserve delivered the third consecutive 75 basis points hike and signaled a steeper path of interest rate increases over the coming months. Against this backdrop, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 suffered heavy losses, and the Dow Jones entered the bear market territory, falling 20% from its peak. In a few days, we might see a lot more chaos sweeping through Wall Street. Experts and strategists are telling us that those who believe the market will still bounce back are simply delusional – and they are about to get a reality check. Some of the brightest minds in the financial world are saying we should all brace for a major shock – one that will not only affect stocks, but businesses, households, crypto markets, and the entire global economy.
In its September FOMC meeting, the Federal Reserve explicitly said that Americans should get ready for a deep housing correction, higher unemployment, and an economic recession as it continues to raise rates to control inflation. At this point, the entire global economy is set to face what could be the worst growth shock since the financial crisis. But despite the clear warnings, some market players are still delusional about how the stock market will perform in the rest of the year and in 2023.
In August alone, the S&P 500 plunged by 11%, and the Dow fell 9%. Despite the losses, estimates for how much profit S&P 500 companies will earn next year seem completely out of touch with our economic reality. Wall Street's rosy projections for corporate profits do not consider the fact that even the nation’s biggest companies are struggling with slower business activity and declining consumer spending. Inflation is still wreaking havoc on the economy, and the worsening profit outlook means that the blindly optimistics are about to get burned.
Soon enough, when investors realize that there’s a flood of companies in financial distress, we’re going to see a devastating chain reaction. Nouriel Roubini, who foresaw the 2008 financial catastrophe, recently came forward to alert that deteriorating economic conditions all across the globe will make the S&P 500 experience a significant correction by the end of 2022, bringing a lot of pain for market players, indebted companies and U.S. households. Roubini, the chairman and CEO of Roubini Macro Associates, says that “the S&P 500 can fall by at least 30% in any recession,”. But the coming crash is probably going to be far steeper as we witness a “truly hard landing,” he says.
The truth is that no one really knows how much higher rates will go – or for how long the Fed will continue to hike them to be able cool inflation. But as the sênior correspondent at Insider, Linette Lopez, noted: “Whether that results in a short downturn or a recession, we know that whatever is coming won't be positive for corporate earnings. Since 1960, earnings have dropped during recessions by an average of 31%. And the longer the economic slump — and by extension, the profit slump — lasts, the worse it will be for stocks.”
Well... In other words, all of the images we’ve seen of a screaming-red stock market and sweaty traders doing the sign of the cross reflect the beginning of the end. Wall Street has been flying so high it forgot that stocks don't always go up. And, as Lopez outlined, the higher you fly, the farther you fall. The law of gravity never fails to catch us up."
"In 72 Hours... Things Get Real Weird"
Canadian Prepper, 9/26/22:
"In 72 Hours... Things Get Real Weird"
"This could be a week for the history books."
Comments here:
"A Look to the Heavens"
“Point your telescope toward the high flying constellation Pegasus and you can find this expanse of Milky Way stars and distant galaxies. Centered on NGC 7814, the pretty field of view would almost be covered by a full moon. NGC 7814 is sometimes called the Little Sombrero for its resemblance to the brighter more famous M104, the Sombrero Galaxy.
Both Sombrero and Little Sombrero are spiral galaxies seen edge-on, and both have extensive central bulges cut by a thinner disk with dust lanes in silhouette. In fact, NGC 7814 is some 40 million light-years away and an estimated 60,000 light-years across. That actually makes the Little Sombrero about the same physical size as its better known namesake, appearing to be smaller and fainter only because it is farther away. A very faint dwarf galaxy, potentially a satellite of NGC 7814, is revealed in the deep exposure just below the Little Sombrero.”
Chet Raymo, “The Journey”
“The Journey”
by Chet Raymo
“Here’s a Sloan Digital Sky Survey map of the universe. This Sloan Digital Sky Survey map of the universe is 2 billion light-years deep. Each point represents a galaxy with a measured redshift. Maps like this have revealed the signature of enormous sound waves rippling through the early universe.
A smoke of galaxies! (2 trillion galaxies according to latest estimates.- CP) A universe cobwebbed with Milky Ways! Each galaxy itself a smoke of stars, hundreds of billions of stars, many or all of them with planets. My book, “Walking Zero,” is about the human journey from the omphalos of our birth into the world of the galaxies, a journey many of us are disinclined to make. Here is how the Prologue to the book begins:
“Each of us is born at the center of the world. For nine months our physical selves are assembled molecule by molecule, cell by cell, in the dark covert of our mother’s womb. A single fertilized egg cell splits into two. Then four. Eight. Sixteen. Thirty-two. Ultimately, 50 trillion cells or so. At first, our future self is a mere blob of protoplasm. But slowly, ever so slowly, the blob begins to differentiate under the direction of genes. A symmetry axis develops. A head, a tail, a spine. At this point, the embryo might be that of a human, or a chicken, or a marmoset. Limbs form. Digits, with tiny translucent nails. Eyes, with papery lids. Ears pressed like flowers against the head. Clearly now a human. A nose, nostrils. Downy hair. Genitals.
As the physical self develops, so too a mental self takes shape, not yet conscious, not yet self-aware, knitted together as webs of neurons in the brain, encapsulating in some respects the evolutionary experience of our species. Instincts impressed by the genes. The instinct to suck, for example. Already, in the womb, the fetus presses its tiny fist against its mouth in anticipation of the moment when the mouth will be offered the mother’s breast. The child will not have to be taught to suck. Other inborn behaviors will express themselves later. Laughing. Crying. Striking out in anger. Loving.
What, if anything, goes on in the mind of the developing fetus we may never know. But this much seems certain: To the extent that the emerging self has any awareness of its surroundings, its world is coterminous with itself. We are not born with knowledge of the antipodes, the plains of Mars, or the far-flung realm of the galaxies. We are not born with knowledge of Precambrian seas, the supercontinent of Pangea, or the Age of Dinosaurs. We are born into a world scarcely older than ourselves and scarcely larger than ourselves. And we are at its center.
A human life is a journey into the grandeur of a universe that may contain more galaxies than there are cells in the human body, a universe in which the whole of a human lifetime is but a single tick of the cosmic clock. The journey can be disorienting; our first instincts are towards coziness, comfort, our mother’s enclosing arms, her breast. The journey, therefore, requires courage – for each individual, and for our species.
Uniquely of all animals, humans have the capacity to let our minds expand into the space and time of the galaxies. No other creatures can number the cells in their bodies, as we can, or count the stars. No other creatures can imagine the explosive birth of the observable universe 14 billion years ago from an infinitely hot, infinitely small seed of energy. That we choose to make this journey – from the all-sustaining womb into the vertiginous spaces and abyss of time – is the glory of our species, and perhaps our most frightening challenge.”
- http://blog.sciencemusings.com/
"Hell..."
“'Why did people call it Hell?' I wondered. No place was Hell, no place could be Hell. It’s the people calling it Hell, that’s the only thing that made it so. People just sticking names on places, so that no one could see those places properly anymore. No, Hell wasn’t anything to do with place, Hell was all to do with people. Maybe Hell was people.”
- John Marsden
"How Far Could Stocks Fall?"
"How Far Could Stocks Fall?"
by Jim Rickards
"The stock market was down again today, the exchanges beginning where they left off last week. But it’s the larger trend that’s really disconcerting. Investors don’t need to be told about the stock market collapse in recent months. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down over 20% since January. The S&P 500 is down 23% since January. And the Nasdaq Composite is down 32% since its all-time high last November.
Those falls are not as bad as the crashes in March 2020 during the pandemic or late 2008 during the global financial crisis, but those comparisons offer little comfort since they were among the worst in history. The real problem for stock investors today is not that the crash is bad so far, but that it might just be getting started. We may be looking at losses that more closely resemble the over-80% collapse of the Dow Jones from 1929–1932 or the 80% collapse of the Nasdaq in 2000–2001 in the wake of the dot-com bubble.
Different Causes, Same Outcome: The culprit this time will not be reckless mortgage lending, Chinese viruses or sock puppet spokespersons. The danger is the much higher interest rates needed to squash global inflation. Rates have been going up since last spring, but inflation continues at very high levels. The question for analysts and investors is how high will rates have to go before inflation falls to levels deemed acceptable by central bankers.
Most observers have connected the interest rate hikes with the fight against inflation, but relatively few have realized the full implications. The real key to fighting inflation is to do so by increasing unemployment.
Fed Chair Jay Powell had a lot to say at a press conference following last Wednesday’s decision to raise interest rates another 75 basis points (the Fed’s third consecutive 75-basis-point increase).
Job One: Powell began by emphasizing that stopping inflation was Job One. He said, “Without price stability the economy does not work for anyone.” He noted that “Growth in consumer spending has slowed.” His key phrase was “The labor market has remained extremely tight… Job openings are incredibly high… They need… to come down.” That’s Powell’s way of saying higher unemployment is the key to lower inflation.
Powell also said, “We think that we’ll need to bring our funds rate to a restrictive level and to keep it there for some time.” Restrictive level means a level that will cause inflation to drop toward the desired target over time. When asked when restrictive policy levels will be reached, Powell said “There’s a ways to go.” To emphasize the point, Powell also said, “We’re committed to getting to a restrictive level… and getting there pretty quickly.”
The Endgame: What is the Fed’s target exactly? Powell said the target was “to bring inflation down to 2%,” the Fed’s desired rate. When asked about the 2% inflation target, Powell said “We can’t fail to do that.” He went on to say, “We have got to get inflation behind us. I wish there were a painless way to do that but there isn’t.”
You get the point. Rates will have to go to 4.75% (from the current level of 3.0%) in the hope that inflation (as measured by core PCE year over year, the Fed’s favorite gauge) drops from 4.6% to 3.5%. At that point, real rates will be over 1.0% and the Fed will wait as long as a year for inflation to drop from 3.5% to the Fed’s target of 2.0%.
The real takeaway here is that Powell is dead serious about hitting a 2% inflation target. It seems he’ll raise rates as long as it takes to get there. He’s in a hurry to do so. And he was completely candid about the fact that there would be economic pain in the process.
Unfortunately, the cost will be a severe recession and a rise of unemployment to 5% or higher ( "The August 2022 ShadowStats Alternate Unemployment Rate gained 0.2% to 24.6%.") millions of job losses, massive business failures, billions of dollars in bad debts and a continued crash in stock prices.
Will Powell Back Down? This suggests some critically important questions. Will Powell actually have the stomach to force rates up to 4.75%, about where they need to go to slow inflation? Based on his remarks, the answer is yes. But we’ll have to wait and see.
The Fed was raising rates and reducing its balance sheet when on Dec. 24, 2018, the stock market tanked and proceeded to fall 20% in 2½ months. Powell panicked and pivoted again to monetary easing. Maybe he’ll do it again. But there’s an important difference between then and now. There was no inflation to speak of in 2018. The Fed could therefore afford to pivot to easing without any real concern about inflation.
That’s obviously not the case in late 2022. Inflation is the Fed’s biggest concern right now, and Powell is making it clear that he’s serious about getting control of it, even if it results in a lot of economic and financial pain.
All Pain, No Gain: The problem, which I’ve addressed many times, is that the Fed has misdiagnosed the nature of today’s inflation. The Fed is trying to crush inflation by reducing demand in the economy. They’re focusing on “demand pull” inflation where consumers are buying in anticipation of even higher inflation to come. But the inflation we’re seeing is called “cost push” inflation. This comes from the supply side, not the demand side. It comes from global supply chain disruptions and the war in Ukraine.
Since the Fed has misdiagnosed the disease, they are applying the wrong medicine. Tight money won’t solve a supply shock. Higher prices will continue. But tight money will hurt consumers, increase savings and raise mortgage interest rates, which hurts housing among other things. So the question is how much damage will Powell’s quest do to the economy and markets? That’s the biggest issue. The answer is that Powell will do far more damage than he expects.
History shows that the Fed will overshoot. There won’t be any “soft landing.” That damage may help Powell get to his inflation target. But it will increase unemployment and destroy stock markets along the way. That’s if all goes according to plan. The actual scenario could be worse. Market people are not ready for this. But you should be."
"Markets Are In Critical Condition As FED Steps Away; The Global Debt Crisis Is Getting Dangerous"
Jeremiah Babe, 9/26/22:
"Markets Are In Critical Condition As FED Steps Away;
The Global Debt Crisis Is Getting Dangerous"
Comments here:
“In The Long Run… We Are All Alive”
“In The Long Run… We Are All Alive”
by MN Gordon
“In 1976, economist Herbert Stein, father of Ben Stein, the economics professor in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, observed that U.S. government debt was on an unsustainable trajectory. He, thus, established Stein’s Law: “If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.” Stein may have been right in theory. Yet the unsustainable trend of U.S. government debt outlasted his life. Herbert Stein died in 1999, several decades before the crackup. Those reading this may not be so lucky.
Sometimes the end of the world comes and goes, while some of us are still here. We believe our present episode of debt, deficits, and state sponsored economic destruction, is one of these times. We’ll have more on this in just a moment. But first, let’s peer back several hundred years. There we find context, edification, and instruction.
In 1696, William Whiston, a protégé of Isaac Newton, wrote a book. It had the grandiose title, “A New Theory of the Earth from its Original to the Consummation of All Things.” In it he proclaimed, among other things, that the global flood of Noah had been caused by a comet. Mr. Whiston took his book very serious. The good people of London took it very serious too. Perhaps it was Whiston’s conviction. Or his great fear of comets. But, for whatever reason, it never occurred to Londoners that he was a Category 5 quack.
Like Neil Ferguson, and his mathematical biology cohorts at Imperial College, London, Whiston’s research filled a void. Much like today’s epidemiological models, the science was bunk. Nonetheless, the results supplied prophecies of the apocalypse to meet a growing demand. It was just a matter of time before Whiston’s research would cause trouble…
Judgement Day: In 1736, William Whiston crunched some data and made some calculations. He projected these calculations out and saw the future. And what he witnessed scared him mad. He barked. He ranted. He foamed at the mouth to anyone who would listen. Pretty soon he’d stirred up his neighbors with a prophecy that the world would be destroyed on October 13th of that year when a comet would collide with the earth.
Jonathan Swift, in his work, “A True and Faithful Narrative of What Passed in London on a Rumour of the Day of Judgment,” quoted Whiston: “Friends and fellow-citizens, all speculative science is at an end: the period of all things is at hand; on Friday next this world shall be no more. Put not your confidence in me, brethren; for tomorrow morning, five minutes after five, the truth will be evident; in that instant the comet shall appear, of which I have heretofore warned you. As ye have heard, believe. Go hence, and prepare your wives, your families, and friends, for the universal change.”
Clergymen assembled to offer prayers. Churches filled to capacity. Rich and paupers alike feared their judgement. Lawyers worried about their fate. Judges were relieved they were no longer lawyers. Teetotalers got smashed. Drunks got sober. Bankers forgave their debtors. Criminals, to be executed, expressed joy.
The wealthy gave their money to beggars. Beggars gave it back to the wealthy. Several rich and powerful gave large donations to the church; no doubt, reserving first class tickets to heaven. Many ladies confessed to their husbands that one or more of their children were bastards. Husbands married their mistresses. And on and on…
The Archbishop of Canterbury, William Wake, had to officially deny this prediction to ease the public consternation. But it did little good. Crowds gathered at Islington, Hampstead, and the surrounding fields, to witness the destruction of London, which was deemed the “beginning of the end.” Then, just like Whiston said, a comet appeared. Prayers were made. Deathbed confessions were shared. And at the moment of maximum fear, something remarkable happened: the world didn’t end. The comet did not collide with earth. It was merely a near miss.
The experience of Whiston, and his pseudoscience prophecy, shows that predictions of the end of the world come and go while people still remain. Sometimes the fallout of these predictions, and the foolishness they provoke, is limited. Other times the foolishness they provoke leads to catastrophe. Here’s what we mean…
Unfortunately for Whiston, he’d never heard of the Mayan prophecy or the 5,125-year Mayan Long Count calendar. If he had, he’d have known that the end of the world is today.Obviously, if you are reading this, the Mayan’s got it wrong too. But not entirely. The end of the world as we know it keeps coming and going; somehow, life after the end of the world goes on. Here’s what we mean…
“In the long run we are all dead,” said 20th Century economist and Fabian socialist, John Maynard Keynes. This was Keynes rationale for why governments should borrow from the future to fund economic growth today. Of course, politicians love an academic theory that gives them cover to intervene in the economy. This is especially so when it justifies spending other people’s money to buy votes. Keynesian economics, and in particular, counter-cyclical stimulus, does just that.
For the Mayans the end of the world came around 900 AD. That was about the time their civilization went into irreparable decline. But not all Mayans died. Some continued to live after the end of the Mayan world as they knew it, only to have the Mayan world end again – with the arrival of the Spanish Conquistadors.
Yet humans are a persistent species. Some Mayans continued to live, even after the end of the world. In fact, there are approximately 800,000 Mayans currently living on Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula. But today’s Mayans, like today’s postmodern Americans, live less by independence and humility than by big government.
“When people planted their corn fields 50 years ago, everybody from all the towns around would pray for good harvests,” said Mayan priest and farmer Petronilo Acevedo Pena. “But when the government started giving out aid, seeds and fertilizer, what do the people do now? They go to the government to ask for help.”
U.S. politicians have attempted to borrow and spend the nation to prosperity for the last 80 years. Over the past decade, the Federal Reserve has aggressively printed money to fund Washington’s epic borrowing binge. The world as it was once known – where a dollar was as good as gold – has come and gone. Today, in life after the end of that world, we are witnessing the illusion of wealth, erected by four generations of borrowing and spending, crumble before our eyes. Moreover, contrary to Keynes, in the long run we are not all dead. In fact, in the long run we are all very much alive. And we are all living with the compounding consequences of shortsighted economic policies."
"Welcome to life after the end of the world.”
Jim Kunstler, "This Is the Way the World Ends"
"This Is the Way the World Ends"
Feel like we’re on the ragged edge of something
new and awful? You are not alone…
by Jim Kunstler
"That “singularity” so many blab about is not what they think it is: the merging of human intelligence with Bill Gates’s Office products, leading to an orgasmic nirvana of infinite memoranda from your HR department concerning new diversity, inclusion, and equity policy. Rather, I speak of the magic moment when the necromancers of finance discover that the proverbial can they’ve been kicking is filled with Schroedinger’s cat food… and the road they’ve been kicking it down actually comes to a dead end up their own highly-credentialed wazoos. Economics will never be the same hereafter.
The bond market has gone south, and that spells The End for the great game of financialization. The bond market is Moby Dick compared to the little blowfish that is the stock market. The global money system is based on bonds, which are… what? That’s right: loans… promises to pay you X at some future moment. So, what happens when a daisy-chain of promises-to-pay gets broken? Or, perhaps more precisely, when all those promises lose their last shred of plausible reality? Why, the money that these broken promises are denominated in loses its essential cred. Trick question: how much is worthless money worth? (Answer: not enough to pay for a can of Scroedinger’s cat food.)
Which is where all this folderol leaves a lot of ordinary people all over Western Civ (and beyond!) trying to scratch up enough increasingly worthless money to feed the family and pay the landlord. Many will never understand what happened. But they will not be any less pissed off at the result.
This is the way the world ends for the hapless phantom known as “Joe Biden” the child-sniffing ectoplasm that haunts the White House these days of late empire. Somehow, the bamboozled nation has so far passively accepted the pranks and punishments laid on them by the backstage managers behind the Figment-in-Chief. Eight-plus percent inflation? No problemo, right? Eighty-seven thousand new IRS agents on-board to drive you batshit while destroying your household and your posterity (ha!)? Half the population of South America flooding across the border? (The vibrancy! You no like?) A hundred dollar fill-up at the gas pump, and no heat for you this winter? (But… Netflix!) Drag queens to amuse and edify your children about the delirious realm of sexual pathology. All that…and how about a Russian hypersonic nuclear missile up your ass if the preceding somehow failed to move you? (Because: Russia, Russia, Russia…!)
Meanwhile, a trend is manifesting in other lands. The people of, first, Sweden and now Italy are voting in “right wing” nationalist governments - the horror - sending their equivalent of our Party of Chaos to the showers. This has irked the President of the European Union, one Ursula von der Leyen, no end. She has threatened to send Italy to its room without supper for the effrontery Of course, Madame von der Leyen’s fellow Germans have already been sent to their room without so much as a kartoffelklop, plus no heat or hot showers for you, Hansel and Gretel. Embrace the suck.
You may be sure that we’re in for the business here in America, too. The thermometers are trending down and Halloween won’t be so much fun when the little goblins come home to a house that’s the same temperature inside as the night air outside. Little Skippy’s face is turning blue, and not because he went trick-or-treating as Robert the Bruce.
The aforementioned Party of Chaos, the gang that queered the last big election, is surely gearing up to run a whole lot of work-arounds for massaging the November 8 midterm vote in their direction. Nothing is beyond them. One of their avatars, the podcaster Sam Harris, said it out loud a month ago: that lying and cheating is perfectly ethical in service to the Left’s being able to continue imposing its will upon all of us. Whoops! He let Schroedinger’s cat out of its hypothetical sack. The punishments must continue until morale improves! (Hope you enjoyed your career, Sam.)
And so it begins… as they intone in the horror movies when the contents of the family’s raised ranch, chattels, children, mom, dad, the golden retriever all get sucked out of the universe via some quantum portal in the television. Today the markets, tomorrow our beloved country will be overrun by what’ll look like an alien invasion of re-po men. This is the way the world ends… not with a bang… but with a physics lesson: the lonesome sound of Schroedinger’s cat’s meow."
○
"The Hollow Men"
I
"We are the hollow men,
We are the stuffed men,
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass,
Or rats' feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar.
Shape without form, shade without color,
Paralyzed force, gesture without motion;
Those who have crossed
With direct eyes, to death's other Kingdom
Remember us-if at all-not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow men,
The stuffed men.
II
Eyes I dare not meet in dreams,
In death's dream kingdom
These do not appear:
There, the eyes are
Sunlight on a broken column.
There, is a tree swinging,
And voices are
In the wind's singing,
More distant and more solemn
Than a fading star.
Let me be no nearer
In death's dream kingdom.
Let me also wear
Such deliberate disguises
Rat's coat, crowskin, crossed staves
In a field
Behaving as the wind behaves
No nearer-
Not that final meeting
In the twilight kingdom
III
This is the dead land,
This is cactus land.
Here the stone images
Are raised, here they receive
The supplication of a dead man's hand
Under the twinkle of a fading star.
Is it like this
In death's other kingdom,
Waking alone
At the hour when we are
Trembling with tenderness,
Lips that would kiss
Form prayers to broken stone.
IV
The eyes are not here,
There are no eyes here
In this valley of dying stars,
In this hollow valley,
This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms
In this last of meeting places
We grope together
And avoid speech,
Gathered on this beach of the tumid river
Sightless, unless
The eyes reappear,
As the perpetual star
Multifoliate rose
Of death's twilight kingdom,
The hope only
Of empty men.
V
Here we go round the prickly pear,
Prickly pear, prickly pear,
Here we go round the prickly pear
At five o'clock in the morning.
Between the idea
And the reality,
Between the motion
And the act,
Falls the Shadow.
For Thine is the Kingdom...
Between the conception
And the creation,
Between the emotion
And the response,
Falls the Shadow
Life is very long...
Between the desire
And the spasm,
Between the potency
And the existence,
Between the essence
And the descent,
Falls the Shadow.
For Thine is the Kingdom...
For Thine is,
Life is,
For Thine is the,
This is the way the world ends,
This is the way the world ends,
This is the way the world ends,
Not with a bang but a whimper."
- T.S. Eliot
○
SoundCloud:
"Banks are Preparing for Power Blackouts"
Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly 9/26/22:
"Banks are Preparing for Power Blackouts"
"Things are getting crazier and crazier. Banks are starting to prepare for blackouts. This is happening globally with all the major banks preparing for power outages."
Comments here:
"Economic Market Snapshot 9/26/22"
"Economic Market Snapshot 9/26/22"
Market Data Center, Live Updates:
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Down the rabbit hole of psychopathic greed and insanity...
Only the consequences are real - to you!
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Latest Market Analysis, Updated 9/26/22
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A comprehensive, essential daily read.
September 26th to 27th
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Financial Stress Index
"The OFR Financial Stress Index (OFR FSI) is a daily market-based snapshot of stress in global financial markets. It is constructed from 33 financial market variables, such as yield spreads, valuation measures, and interest rates. The OFR FSI is positive when stress levels are above average, and negative when stress levels are below average. The OFR FSI incorporates five categories of indicators: credit, equity valuation, funding, safe assets and volatility. The FSI shows stress contributions by three regions: United States, other advanced economies, and emerging markets."
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Job cuts and much more.
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Commentary, highly recommended:
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"The more I see of the monied classes,
the better I understand the guillotine."
- George Bernard Shaw
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Oh yeah... beyond words. Any I know anyway...
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And now... The End Game...
"Europe To Become Economic Wasteland As industry Dies And Banks Fail"
"Europe To Become Economic Wasteland
As industry Dies And Banks Fail"
by Mike Adams
"Europe's economy, currencies and industries are in free fall, plunging toward "economic wasteland" status that's less than a year away if natural gas supplies from Russia aren't quickly restored. The situation is so dire that Germany chemical giant BASF -- formerly part of the Nazi-run IG Farben chemical conglomerate that carried out war crimes against humanity -- is now threatening to shut down operations for industrial plants that have run continuously since the 1960s.
BASF is critical to the world's supply chain for fertilizer, petroleum refining, medicines, plastics, consumer products, industrial materials and more. If BASF were to go down, Western Europe's industrial economy would rapidly collapse into ruin, and the global supply chain crisis would dramatically worsen far beyond anything we saw due to covid lockdowns. Astonishingly, BASF warns that if it were to shutter operations, no one knows whether it could be restarted. This means a permanent shutdown of industry across Europe.
Banking failures, agricultural collapse and an industrial wipeout look to be imminent, and some analysts are warning that Europe will face at minimum three winters without energy, food and industry. See the astonishing full story here:
Gregory Mannarino, "Currency Crash, Bond Market Free-Fall, Stocks Dive, Much Higher Inflation Coming!"
Gregory Mannarino, 9/26/22:
"Currency Crash, Bond Market Free-Fall,
Stocks Dive, Much Higher Inflation Coming!"
Comments here:
"Learning from Ants"
"Learning from Ants"
by Jeff Thomas
"If you catch 100 red fire ants as well as 100 large black ants, and put them in a jar, at first, nothing will happen. However, if you violently shake the jar and dump them back on the ground the ants will fight until they eventually kill each other. The thing is, the red ants think the black ants are the enemy and vice versa, when in reality, the real enemy is the person who shook the jar. This is exactly what’s happening in society today. Liberal vs. Conservative. Black vs. White. Pro Mask vs. Anti-Mask. Vax vs. Anti-vax. Rich vs. poor. Man vs. woman. Cop vs. citizen. [Etc.] The real question we need to be asking ourselves is who’s shaking the jar… and why?"
The above observation by Shera Starr cannot be improved upon. And yet, the answer to the question is fairly simple. But let’s first take a look at this anomaly. It’s natural to identify with some individuals more than others. That tendency occurred before Homo sapiens came into being. In addition, the tendency for animals to group into families or packs also predates humans.
We tend to want to be around those who behave the way we do and have the same perceptions as we do. That only makes sense. We wish to surround ourselves with those who are unlikely to surprise and possibly even endanger us by behaving in a fashion that we would not ourselves choose. This is the basis of trust – an essential in group or herd mentality. And being a part of a group or herd brings to us increased safety.
So, what then, of those who are not within our group or herd? How do we relate to them? Well, any nature program that covers animals gathered around a water hole can provide that answer. We see a small group of wild pigs drinking alongside a group of wildebeests. Neither species is predatory, so they learn to recognize that, even though one group is made up of savannah-living grazers and the other are forest-living foragers, they can easily co-exist, which will increase the ability of both species to use the water hole at the same time.
We might also see a group of hyenas using the water hole, but we notice that the prey animals all seek to keep a distance between themselves and the predatory hyenas. Everyone understands that they are all at the water hole for the same reason and it makes sense to share, even if, in another situation, they are natural enemies. In fact, in most of nature, we see that species adapt to a condition of mutual tolerance in order to be able to coexist.
No surprise, then, that Homo sapiens got on the mutual tolerance bandwagon in its formative stages and, for the most part, has remained that way. But it is also true that predators develop dual habits. They may exercise tolerance at the water hole, but at some point, they mean to make a meal of their water hole neighbors. And when doing so, many species create associations with others of their kind to hunt.
This, too, is true of humans. Most of humanity seeks to live in a spirit of cooperation with others. In the countryside, people erect walls and fences to establish boundaries, then find it expedient to respect such divisions in order to live in peace. Even in cities, people who live cheek by jowl in the same building respect each other’s privacy for the most part. Even if they do not become friends, they either remain polite or ignore each other.
Although there are always exceptions, for the most part, mankind behaves in a manner that is based upon "getting along." He might argue with others, but for the most part, he understands that cooperation generally should be the objective, as it’s in his best interests.
But why, then, are we seeing in so many of the countries of the First World, a rapidly increasing polarity amongst people. Ms. Starr is exactly correct. Those who would be most inclined toward mutual tolerance have, in recent years, become so polarised that they cannot so much as get together with their own families for the holidays without getting into heated arguments.
Why are people of today so solidly in one of two camps? Can this be blamed on the rise of the internet? Well, no, the internet has become the source of a plethora of opinions and perceptions. And more than closing people off to polarized "A" and "B" choices, the internet has served to broaden public discourse.
Of course, most people express distrust for the media, particularly those networks that purportedly deal in "news." What passes for news today is far from objective information that the viewer can then assess at his leisure. On one network, we view unceasing diatribes against one political party. Then we turn the channel and view unceasing diatribes against the opposing party. In turning on the News, we arrive at Indoctrination Central.
But if we really pay attention objectively, we discover that the same programs are dictating to us that it is either our humanitarian duty to vax, or that vaxxing will enslave us to globalists who will inject us with microchips. They are also our source for the opposing beliefs that warfare is essential to protect us against those who seek to destroy us, or that it will be the wars themselves that will destroy us.
In fact, all of Ms. Starr’s concerns find their source in the media. When we ask the question, "Who is shaking the jar… and why?" we find that those who control the media are at the source of the polarization of people, especially in the First World. As to the "Why?" the answer is so simple that it’s often overlooked. Like the ants, the more a people can be made to fight each other, the easier it is to subjugate them. And since the effort to polarize people has become so massive, we can only conclude that the ultimate objective will be to implement a far greater level of subjugation, in an abnormally short period of time.
Liberal vs. Conservative. Black vs. white. Man vs. woman. Divide and conquer. In such a socio-political climate, the challenge will be to keep your wits about you. As the jar is shaken on a daily basis, it will be vital to recognize that those who control the media are creating a war between the pigs and the wildebeests. This is something that is not desired by either species, but as Hermann Goering stated, "Why, of course the people don’t want war." They must be goaded into it if those who are pulling the stings are to achieve greater subjugation.
In the coming years, this trend can be expected to become far worse than at present. The best you can and should do is to stay informed so that you can protect yourself in the best way possible."
Bill Bonner, "30 Trillion Reasons"
"30 Trillion Reasons"
Plus real debt, phony notes and pounded sterling...
by Bill Bonner
Youghal, Ireland - “Pound Crashes to All Time Low” is the headline at Bloomberg this morning. The pound plunged almost 5% to an all-time low after Kwasi Kwarteng vowed to press on with more tax cuts, stoking fears that the new Chancellor of the Exchequer’s fiscal policies will send inflation and government debt soaring.
The pound is down against the dollar. But why? Our own Tom Dyson asks: “Why is the dollar so strong when the economy is entering recession, the stock market is in correction, and the government is $31 trillion in debt?” He might have added that the dollar is losing value at an 8.3% annual rate. What is the meaning of it? Is Britain headed towards more inflation? Mr. Kwarteng is the UK’s new treasury secretary. His tax cut policy is similar to Donald Trump’s tax cut in 2017. It is designed to light a fire under the economy.
Investors expect that it will light a fire under inflation instead; they’re selling pounds and buying dollars. The dollar is still the world’s go-to currency. But as the go-to dollar goes up, other currencies are looking like goners. Especially those from emerging markets. They borrowed cheap dollars. Now, they are expected to pay back in much more expensive currency. And what about Americans? Didn’t they borrow dollars too? And doesn’t each rate hike make their dollars dearer and their debts harder to pay? Are they goners too?
The Sneaky Tax: Last week, we took up a provocative subject. Maybe inflation is not so bad for everyone. And maybe the feds – in the UK as well as America – are not as eager to fight it as they appear. But let’s back up.
There are universal rules. And there are policies. The rules – don’t kill, don’t steal, drive on the right side – benefit just about everyone. The policies (regulations, programs) always benefit a few at the expense of the many.
And inflation? Inflation is a policy. It’s a tax. Like all taxes, it lands on some harder than others. And the farther you go down the wealth mountain, the harder it falls. For the first 20 years of this century, inflation was a gift to the elite. The Fed inflated the currency and bought bonds, putting $8 trillion in new money into Wall Street. This new money drove down interest rates and increased asset prices while leaving consumer prices scarcely touched.
But the Fed’s claptrap zero interest policy caused people to borrow far too much money. That excess is now embedded in debt – $30 trillion for the US government, $60 trillion for business and households. Somebody’s gotta pay that debt. And this may be the only thing the Republican and Democratic elite agree on – it ain’t gonna be them.
Right now, the Fed is raising the carrying cost of debt. Stocks and bonds have come down – 15% to 20%, some of them even more. Jerome Powell says he will keep at it, openly discussing a Fed Funds rate north of 4%. With every step, Powell believes he grows taller, following in the giant footsteps of Paul Volcker, and positioning himself for a Nobel prize… or at least the cover of TIME. He will be the man who saves the planet by defeating inflation.
But getting control of inflation will require more exertion. Paul Volcker had to put the Fed Fund rate all the way up to 20% – fully 700 basis points ABOVE consumer price inflation (CPI) – in order to bring inflation under control. The Fed has a long way to go.
Survival Mode: Remember, it’s either inflate…or the Bubble Economy dies. And if it dies, the graveyard gets crowded…with bonds, stocks, businesses, loans, mortgages, real estate – almost all assets. Much of the wealth of the elite gets buried. And while asset prices go to Hell…the federal government goes into purgatory. Not completely dead, but with much less room to maneuver.
Colleague Dan Denning: "The US government cannot afford to pay $1 trillion in interest on its trillions of dollars’ worth of debt that must now be refinanced at much higher interest rates. Expenses would have to be cut back – drastically. No more ‘stimmies’. No more giveaways. No more unemployment incentives. No more checks to the Ukraine. No more ‘green energy’ transition; the feds would be in survival mode.
The rest of the economy would be back-pedaling too… reeling from much higher interest expenses. “Liquidity” (ready cash, when you need it) would disappear. Lenders would see defaults coming from every direction. America would enter a deep depression, probably accompanied by riots, strikes, social chaos and political violence."
Is that going to happen? We don’t think so. An honest man, when he can’t pay his debts, admits it and accepts the consequences. He tightens his belt. He goes meekly into Chapter 7 or Chapter 11. He tries to make amends. But a man with $30 trillion in debt and a printing press in the basement? He has another option: inflation. Every year, inflation reduces his debt burden. He is happy to print money. He pays his debts with his phony notes. And everyone wonders why things are getting so expensive."
"Future Generations (If There Are Future Generations)"
"Future Generations (If There Are Future Generations)"
by Caitlin Johnstone
"Future generations, if there are future generations,
will scarce believe that our species once stockpiled armageddon weapons on purpose,
once built our entire civilization around economic models that could only result in the destruction of our biosphere,
once permitted corporations who profit from war to successfully lobby policymakers to start more wars,
once warehoused living beings in factory farms where they were tortured and brutalized,
once starved children to death with sanctions because their rulers disobeyed our rulers,
once made policies which kept people poor so they’d be financially coerced into facilitating military mass murder,
once let people go hungry and homeless if they didn’t have enough imaginary numbers in their bank accounts,
once stripped this planet of biodiversity and old growth forests to turn the gears of an imaginary economy instead of collaborating with our ecosystem.
Future generations, if there are future generations,
will look back in perplexity at our omnicidal madness,
at our blind subservience to the very worst among us,
at our remarkable ingenuity in always finding groundbreaking new ways to hate each other,
at our fanatical devotion to competition and control when we knew that all we really wanted was to be loved,
at the way we’d marginalize and outcast those who thought differently from the rest of us even though we knew full well that our way of thinking wasn’t working,
at the way we’d spend our lives feeding insatiable hungry ghosts only to wind up on our deathbeds wondering why we feel dissatisfied,
at the amount of energy we’d pour into not experiencing the beauty which surrounds us in every moment and rejecting the gifts we were being showered with from every direction,
at the herculean effort we poured into keeping enlightenment from crashing in,
at our nonstop desperate flailing attempts to be anywhere but here and now,
at the amount of work we put into avoiding being at ease.
Future generations, if there are future generations,
I am so glad that you made it past all the many obstacles we put up between our present age and your birth.
Praise be to you and your parents
for cleaning up our mess,
for setting things right,
for becoming conscious,
for valuing a healthy world,
for getting humanity to where you’re at now
so that the real adventure of our species could begin.
Future generations, if there are future generations,
thank you for your kindness and compassion as you gaze back on us through the records we have left you.
It might not be immediately obvious,
but some of us here saw what you’re seeing from there."
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SoundCloud Reading by Tim Foley:
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