Gregory Mannarino, "Bank Derivative Exposure Is Way Worse Than Anyone Expected"

Gregory Mannarino, AM 5/12/23

"Bank Derivative Exposure Is Way

 Worse Than Anyone Expected"

- https://traderschoice.net/

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

"$2.5 Quadrillion Disaster Waiting to Happen

- Egon von Greyerz"

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

"There is sufficiency in the world

for Man's need but not for his greed."

- Mahatma Gandhi

"Egon von Greyerz (EvG) stores gold for clients at the biggest private gold vault in the world buried deep in the Swiss Alps. EvG is a financial and precious metals expert. EvG is a former Swiss banker and an expert in risk. He says the risk in the global markets has never been this high.

EvG explains, “Credit has increased dramatically through derivatives. All instruments being issued now by banks, pension funds, stock funds, it’s all synthetic. There is no real underlying payments in anything almost. Therefore, my estimate for derivatives would be at least $2 quadrillion, and I think that is probably conservative. Then, we have debt on top of that of $300 trillion, and we also have a couple hundred trillion dollars of unfunded liabilities. So, we are talking about $2.5 quadrillion, and that’s with a global GDP of $80 trillion. So, there is a disaster waiting to happen, and especially because all this created money has created no value whatsoever. I always knew this would collapse, and it’s taken longer than I expected, but I think we are at the end of a major era.

These derivatives, at some point in the coming few years, will actually turn into debt. Central banks will have to cover all the outstanding liabilities of the commercial banks as we are seeing now with Credit Suisse, Bank of England and etc. This is going to happen across the board. Whether it’s called derivatives or called debt, as far as I am concerned, it’s the same thing. It will have the same effect on the world financial system, which will be disastrous, of course.”

EvG says the derivative markets were simply a way for financial institutions to carry debt and not show it on their balance sheets. In the end, everything will balance out. EvG goes on to say, “Nobody can repay the debt, and they can’t even pay interest. So, therefore, when the debt implodes, so will the assets that were financed by this debt. So, both sides of the balance sheet have to come down. Whether it comes down by 50%, 75% or 90%, I don’t know. All I think about is risk, and the financial system will not survive in its present form. Central banks only use one kind of medicine, and that is more printed money. Now, you are getting negative returns on printed money. So, that is not going to save anything.

Sadly we are looking at a situation when this system will start to implode. The rich are still rich, but the poor are really poor. Overall in the UK, Germany and most European countries, people don’t have enough money to live. This is a human disaster already. With food costs going up 25% and energy going up the same and gasoline, interest rates and rents, people don’t have enough money, and that is happening now. It’s a human disaster of mega proportions. It’s so sad, and governments will have no chance of doing anything about it.”

In closing, EvG says, “This is why it is getting closer for implosion because the whole system can’t take this. The risk is increasing exponentially. So, I think people should be prepared. Most asset markets have lost money, and it is going to get worse.” There is much more in the 43-minute interview.

- https://usawatchdog.com/

Join Greg Hunter on Rumble as he goes One-on-One with Egon von Greyerz of Matterhorn Asset Management, which can be found on GoldSwitzerland.com.

- https://rumble.com/

o

Related:

- https://brokerchooser.com/

"We Have Not Seen the Worst"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly 5/12/23

"We Have Not Seen the Worst"

"There is so much happening in the economy. We are getting warnings from so many people, and we have not seen the worst of anything. The banking, interest rates, and the markets in general are completely upside down."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Major Price Increases At Dollar General! Saving Where We Can!"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures With Danno, 5/12/23

"Major Price Increases At Dollar General! 

Saving Where We Can!"

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

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"They F%&!^D Around And Are About To Find Out"

Full screen recommended.

Canadian Prepper, 5/11/23

"They F%&!^D Around And Are About To Find Out"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com

"The Economic Storm Is Closing In; Housing Market Cannot Survive Without Jobs"

Jeremiah Babe, 5/11/23

"The Economic Storm Is Closing In; 

Housing Market Cannot Survive Without Jobs"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"The Retirement Crisis Is Turning The American Dream Into An Absolute Nightmare"

Full screen recommended.

"The Retirement Crisis Is Turning 

The American Dream Into An Absolute Nightmare" 

by Epic Economist

"The American retirement dream is turning into a horrifying nightmare. Millions of Americans will simply not be able to retire let alone live the retirement of their dreams. While previous generations were able to rely on a combination of social security, personal savings, and employer-sponsored plans to secure their future, all of these systems are breaking down at a staggering pace and no longer are a reliable form to build a solid financial foundation for retirement. Economists warn that many middle-class Americans will soon be disappointed to find out that they will have to work for much longer than they’ve planned. Research shows that the vast majority of U.S. workers reaching retirement age have only saved enough to provide an annual income of $3,600 when they will need about 20 times that amount to be able to afford basic expenses and skyrocketing healthcare costs. In today’s video, we expose the dire straits of the retirement market right now, and why this growing crisis is going to leave America in shambles.

With the cost of living putting U.S. workers on the edge, the dream of retirement is looking more like a fairytale... unless you are filthy rich. Of course, we all have dreamed at one point or another about what our retirement might look like. Many people idealize stopping working by their mid-sixties so they can spend their time engaging in other activities such as traveling, being with loved ones, and pursuing their hobbies and interests. Although every dream may be different, everything comes down to having a good financial cushion to fall back on. However, for the overwhelming majority of middle-class Americans, this is no longer within their reach. 

In today’s economy, the ability to achieve financial security in retirement is worryingly tenuous for about 67% of Americans at or near retirement age. Given the scarcity of pensions and Social Security’s imminent demise, we are headed toward a reality in which personal savings will be the most significant source of income for retirees. This means that most part of the U.S. population are not, and may never be prepared. Estimates by NIRS show that a 65-year-old worker, planning for a possible 30-year retirement, will need savings of around $1.8 million to generate an annual income of $75,000 a year. In contrast, the agency also highlights that the median retirement savings of Americans between the ages of 55 and 64 is currently zero.

All of this indicates that more than two-thirds of income earners about to hit retirement ages will lack the resources to maintain their lifestyle in retirement and are potentially at risk of running out of money during their senior years. These risks are compounded due to longer life expectancy afforded by medical advances and lifestyle changes.

We not only need our retirement system to be fixed, but our economic and monetary system as well. We are working more and receiving less, which then makes us consume less, leading to a more vulnerable economy. Monetary policies have plunged the value of our dollars, and now our money purchases less too. Jobs pay less than they once paid our parents and grandparents, so we achieve less than they did and cope with higher expenses for all bare necessities. No matter how hard we try, we continue to lose. And the good old days are just a very distant memory at this point. It feels like we’re stuck in this nightmare where we can never see the end of our suffering. But now more than ever, it is time to wake up."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: Yanni, “To the One Who Knows”

Full screen recommended.

Yanni, “To the One Who Knows” 

"A Look to the Heavens"

"Who knows what evil lurks in the eyes of galaxies? The Hubble knows -- or in the case of spiral galaxy M64 - is helping to find out. Messier 64, also known as the Evil Eye or Sleeping Beauty Galaxy, may seem to have evil in its eye because all of its stars rotate in the same direction as the interstellar gas in the galaxy's central region, but in the opposite direction in the outer regions. Captured here in great detail by the Earth-orbiting Hubble Space Telescope, enormous dust clouds obscure the near-side of M64's central region, which are laced with the telltale reddish glow of hydrogen associated with star formation. 

M64 lies about 17 million light years away, meaning that the light we see from it today left when the last common ancestor between humans and chimpanzees roamed the Earth. The dusty eye and bizarre rotation are likely the result of a billion-year-old merger of two different galaxies."

- https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210329.html

"No Smooth Road..."

"Life has no smooth road for any of us; and in the bracing atmosphere

of a high aim the very roughness stimulates the climber to steadier steps,

till the legend, over steep ways to the stars, fulfills itself."

- W. C. Doane

The Poet: William Butler Yeats, "The Second Coming"

"The Second Coming"

"Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;

Surely the Second Coming is at hand.

The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out

When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi

Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert

A shape with lion body and the head of a man,

A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,

Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it

Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.

The darkness drops again; but now I know

That twenty centuries of stony sleep

Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?"

- William Butler Yeats, January 1919

"Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world," indeed.

"Do You Want..."

"Do you want to live life, or do you want to escape life?"

- Macklemore

"The Sociopath Next Door"

"The Sociopath Next Door"

by Martha Stout

"Imagine - if you can - not having a conscience, none at all, no feelings of guilt or remorse no matter what you do, no limiting sense of concern for the well-being of strangers, friends, or even family members. Imagine no struggles with shame, not a single one in your whole life, no matter what kind of selfish, lazy, harmful, or immoral action you had taken. And pretend that the concept of responsibility is unknown to you, except as a burden others seem to accept without question, like gullible fools.

Now add to this strange fantasy the ability to conceal from other people that your psychological makeup is radically different from theirs. Since everyone simply assumes that conscience is universal among human beings, hiding the fact that you are conscience-free is nearly effortless. You are not held back from any of your desires by guilt or shame, and you are never confronted by others for your cold-bloodedness. The ice water in your veins is so bizarre, so completely outside of their personal experience, that they seldom even guess at your condition. In other words, you are completely free of internal restraints, and your unhampered liberty to do just as you please, with no pangs of conscience, is conveniently invisible to the world.

You can do anything at all, and still your strange advantage over the majority of people, who are kept in line by their consciences will most likely remain undiscovered. How will you live your life? What will you do with your huge and secret advantage, and with the corresponding handicap of other people (conscience)? The answer will depend largely on just what your desires happen to be, because people are not all the same. Even the profoundly unscrupulous are not all the same. Some people - whether they have a conscience or not - favor the ease of inertia, while others are filled with dreams and wild ambitions. Some human beings are brilliant and talented, some are dull-witted, and most, conscience or not, are somewhere in between. There are violent people and nonviolent ones, individuals who are motivated by blood lust and those who have no such appetites. Provided you are not forcibly stopped, you can do anything at all.

Maybe you are someone who craves money and power, and though you have no vestige of conscience, you do have a magnificent IQ. You have the driving nature and the intellectual capacity to pursue tremendous wealth and influence, and you are in no way moved by the nagging voice of conscience that prevents other people from doing everything and anything they have to do to succeed. You choose business, politics, the law, banking or international development, or any of a broad array of other power professions, and you pursue your career with a cold passion that tolerates none of the usual moral or legal encumbrances. When it is expedient, you doctor the accounting and shred the evidence, you stab your employees and your clients (or your constituency) in the back, marry for money, tell lethal premeditated lies to people who trust you, attempt to ruin colleagues who are powerful or eloquent, and simply steamroll over groups who are dependent and voiceless. And all of this you do with the exquisite freedom that results from having no conscience whatsoever.

You become unimaginably, unassailably, and maybe even globally successful. Why not? With your big brain, and no conscience to rein in your schemes, you can do anything at all. If you are born at the right time, with some access to family fortune, and you have a special talent for whipping up other people's hatred and sense of deprivation, you can arrange to kill large numbers of unsuspecting people. With enough money, you can accomplish this from far away, and you can sit back safely and watch in satisfaction. Crazy and frightening - and real, in about 6 percent of the population.

The high incidence of sociopathy in human society has a profound effect on the rest of us who must live on this planet, too, even those of us who have not been clinically traumatized. The individuals who constitute this 6 percent drain our relationships, our bank accounts, our accomplishments, our self-esteem, our very peace on earth.

Yet surprisingly, many people know nothing about this disorder, or if they do, they think only in terms of violent psychopathy - murderers, serial killers, mass murderers - people who have conspicuously broken the law many times over, and who, if caught, will be imprisoned, maybe even put to death by our legal system. We are not commonly aware of, nor do we usually identify, the larger number of nonviolent sociopaths among us, people who often are not blatant lawbreakers, and against whom our formal legal system provides little defense.

Most of us would not imagine any correspondence between conceiving an ethnic genocide and, say, guiltlessly lying to one's boss about a coworker. But the psychological correspondence is not only there; it is chilling. Simple and profound, the link is the absence of the inner mechanism that beats up on us, emotionally speaking, when we make a choice we view as immoral, unethical, neglectful, or selfish. Most of us feel mildly guilty if we eat the last piece of cake in the kitchen, let alone what we would feel if we intentionally and methodically set about to hurt another person. Those who have no conscience at all are a group unto themselves, whether they be homicidal tyrants or merely ruthless social snipers.

The presence or absence of conscience is a deep human division, arguably more significant than intelligence, race, or even gender. What differentiates a sociopath who lives off the labors of others from one who occasionally robs convenience stores, or from one who is a contemporary robber baron - or what makes the difference between an ordinary bully and a sociopathic murderer - is nothing more than social status, drive, intellect, blood lust, or simple opportunity. What distinguishes all of these people from the rest of us is an utterly empty hole in the psyche, where there should be the most evolved of all humanizing functions."

- http://www.cix.co.uk/~klockstone/spath.htm

- https://coyoteprimeblog2.blogspot.com/

o

"Brain Differences in Psychopaths Identified"

The Daily "Near You?"

Robstown, Texas, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

Gerald Celente, "Debt Default Panic, Banks Going Bust; The Worst Is Yet To Come"

Full screen recommended.

Strong language alert!

Gerald Celente, 5/11/23

"Debt Default Panic, Banks Going Bust. 

The Worst Is Yet To Come"

- https://trendsjournal.com

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Streets of Philadelphia, Kensington Ave Documentary"

Full screen recommended.

RangerRickTV, 5/11/23

"Streets of Philadelphia, Kensington Ave Documentary"

"Problems with drugs and crime on Kensington Ave, Philadelphia's most dangerous street. In Philadelphia as a whole, violent crime and drug abuse are major issues. The city has a higher rate of violent crime than the national average and other similarly sized metropolitan areas. The drug overdose rate in Philadelphia is also concerning. Between 2013 and 2015, the number of drug overdose deaths in the city increased by 50%, with more than twice as many deaths from overdoses as homicides. Kensington's high crime rate and drug abuse contribute significantly to Philadelphia's problems.

Because of the high number of drugs in the neighborhood, Kensington has the third-highest drug crime rate by neighborhood in Philadelphia, at 3.57. The opioid epidemic has played a significant role in this problem, as it has in much of the rest of the country. Opioid abuse has skyrocketed in the United States over the last two decades, and Philadelphia is no exception. In addition to having a high rate of drug overdose deaths, 80% of Philadelphia's overdose deaths involved opioids, and Kensington is a significant contributor to this figure. This Philadelphia neighborhood is said to have the largest open-air heroin market on the East Coast, with many neighbors migrating to the area for heroin and other opioids. With such a high concentration of drugs in Kensington, many state and local officials have focused on the neighborhood in an attempt to address Philadelphia's problem."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

A comment: Before you unthinkingly respond, "Oh, that could never happen here!", you'd better be aware that the economy is totally collapsing in every way, and it's doing it right now, and life as we knew it is already gone forever. This is only the beginning. You'd better pray to God it doesn't happen where YOU live...

Must View! "You Are Being Set Up"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, PM 5/11/23 Bonus Post

"You Are Being Set Up"

We are getting warning after warning. We need to take this seriously. Jamie Dimon is stepping forward and telling us that they have set up a war room to work on the Banking and Market Collapse once an agree on the debt ceiling limit is not reached."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

"Jamie Dimon Gives Dire Warning Over Debt Ceiling"

o

"Great Depression 2.0 Incoming"

"How It Really Is"

 

Bill Bonner, "Our Response to Mr. Kennedy (cont.)"

"Our Response to Mr. Kennedy (cont.)"

Here's what happens when you leave interest 

rates way too low for way too long...

by Bill Bonner

Dublin, Ireland - "Our story so far…Presidential candidate, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., wanted to know what we thought. “Go back and read our daily messages for the last 25 years,” we might have said. “And don’t miss our 5 books; you need to read those too.”

Instead, we prepared an ‘executive summary.’ In Part I, yesterday, we explained how the post-1971 dollar was cut loose from the real world of time and resources. Its gold backing was removed. This allowed the financial economy to race ahead of the real economy of goods and services.

Money is just a way of keeping track of who owes what to whom, like tickets in a parking garage. ‘Financialization’ is what happens when you add tickets; you go to get your car and find that someone else has driven away in it. It meant that a lot of people thought they had ‘wealth’ that didn’t really exist. Their stocks weren’t worth as much as they hoped. Their houses were over-priced. Their pensions were under-funded. Their government deficits piled up…waiting for a day of reckoning. Our chart showed GDP output practically flat, while “assets” increased 10 times.

So, let us pick up our letter to RFK,Jr. (we promised fewer than 1,000 words…alas, we ran over), where we left off:

Dear Robert,

The second major change to the financial system occurred in the late ‘80s when Alan Greenspan gave out his famous ‘Greenspan Put.’ Investors then knew that the game was rigged – in their favor. When they made money, they pocketed the gains. When they lost money, the losses were shared out – by lowering interest rates and inflating the currency – to the general population.

This was dramatically demonstrated in 2001-2004, 2007- 2016 and again in 2019-2022. Each time, the ‘market’ tried to reduce asset prices and debt, and the Fed stepped in with cheaper credit (and more debt). Remarkably, the Fed’s key lending rate remained under the inflation rate for the whole period 2008–2023 to today (excepting a few months in 2019).

In other words, instead of allowing the economy to correct mistakes and excesses, the Fed made them worse. It drove down interest rates, claiming – perhaps believing – that it was ‘stimulating’ the economy. Between 1999 and 2023, the Fed added some $8 trillion in new money. The federal government added some $28 trillion in deficits. This should have been more than enough ‘stimulus’ – enough to wake a dead man.

But if there is a success story, in which real growth was stimulated by fake money lent out at fake interest rates, it is absent from the historical record. Every instance of excessive money-printing – from ancient Rome in the time of Diocletian… to Zimbabwe, Venezuela and Argentina in our own time – shows the real fruit of ‘stimulus’ is bitter…even fatal. It leads to poverty and discontent, not prosperity.

Here’s Chart #3. It shows what happens when you leave interest rates way too low for way too long. You get a lot of debt.

Cause, Meet Effect: Absurdly-low interest rates enticed people to borrow. Debt grew proportionally. Federal debt is now 86 times higher than it was in 1971. Credit card debt nears $1 trillion. Student loans have surpassed $1.7 trillion. Total US debt is over $90 trillion. The federal government already owes $32 trillion and expects more $1 trillion-dollar deficits “as far as the eye can see.”

The effect of these two policy changes – the ‘flexible’ post-1971 dollar…and ultra-low interest rates – was exhilarating to the rich. But devastating to everyone else. A family in the top 1% now has 680 times as much wealth as one in the bottom 50%.

Trillions of dollars’ worth of easy money created an unnatural hot-house environment. People got used to 4% mortgages. Businesses got used to rolling over their debt at a 3% interest rate. The Federal government got used to borrowing at a negative real rate on its 10-year bonds. And speculators got used to ‘negative carry.’ At one point, they borrowed at the Fed’s low rates, then lent the money back to the government (by buying US Treasury bonds). The transaction was economically sterile and fruitless. But it was profitable. And the Fed’s ‘forward guidance’ removed the risk of a sudden shift in policy. But now, like a dense jungle canopy, exorbitant debt shades and stifles the eco-system beneath it

Then, in July 2020, the credit cycle hit bottom (the lowest yields in 500 years). Interest rates began to rise. And today, 10-year Treasury bond yields are 5 times higher than they were just two years ago. The correction that the Fed has postponed for more than three decades is upon us. The traditional, dreaded feedback loop has reasserted itself; the Fed can no longer stimulate the economy, not without causing consumer prices to rise.

Inflate or Die: None of this would have happened without the bumbling intervention of the Fed. Market-set interest rates would have risen a long time ago. Higher rates would have halted the build-up of debt, flattened the bubble in asset prices, and encouraged real capital formation.

In a better world, the Fed would be disbanded. After all, the idea that a group of graying lawyers and economists can set interest rates for a $24 trillion economy is pure fantasy. Neither theory nor experience supports it. As it is, the Fed faces a grim choice. Inflate or Die. Either it backs off and allows the bubble economy to die…with a crash on Wall Street, recession, bankruptcies, unemployment and all of the other nasty things needed to correct its own policy mistakes. Or, it protects the gains of the rich and the powerful by continuing to inflate the economy.

The inflation option postpones the reckoning…but it increases the pain. And it destroys the middle class. The poor get inflation-adjusted handouts. The rich have their assets, their hedges, and their hustles. But the middle classes sell their time by the hour. Prices go up. Real wages go down. Jobs disappear. And houses, where the middle classes keep their savings, become debt traps. As prices rise, families borrow heavily to buy them. Then, they must refinance… at higher and higher rates.

An honest democracy cannot exist without a strong, independent middle class. The poor are easily distracted with circuses and bribed with bread. The rich may still call themselves ‘capitalists,’ but they become ‘crony capitalists’…manipulating the masses and the financial system to extract as much fast, easy cash as possible.

So, it is not just the financial system that is in danger. It’s the whole kit and kaboodle of US society. Money affects everything. Our guess is that when the going gets tough the deciders will choose the worst option – inflation. Politically, it is the smoother road…for a while. But maybe you can be the decider who will change that. Good luck,"

- https://bonnerprivateresearch.substack.com/

"It'll Do..."

Deputy Wendell: "It's a mess, ain't it, sheriff?"

Sheriff Bell: "If it ain't, it'll do till the mess gets here."

- "No Country For Old Men"

"Don't Let Panic Set In"

Dan, I Allegedly 5/11/23

"Don't Let Panic Set In"

"Today we sit down with Bob Kudla and cover everything in the economy. We need to stay calm during these tough economic times. Things are more challenging now than ever."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Frustrating Trip To Kroger! Groceries Are Becoming Unaffordable!"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures With Danno, 5/11/23

"Frustrating Trip To Kroger! 

Groceries Are Becoming Unaffordable!"

"In today's vlog we are at Kroger, and are noticing some major price increases on groceries! This is not good as stores are already charging extremely high prices on most items!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"UK's Massive WW3 Escalation; F-22s Sent To Front; Nuclear Evacuation In Progress"

Full screen recommended.

Canadian Prepper, 5/10/23

"UK's Massive WW3 Escalation; F-22s Sent To Front;

 Nuclear Evacuation In Progress"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Adapting To A Collapsing Economy, You Could Lose Everything; The System Is Falling"

Jeremiah Babe, 5/10/23

"Adapting To A Collapsing Economy, 

You Could Lose Everything; The System Is Falling"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyjlNrBD6iY

"Head of Russia's Space Agency Drops Bombshell Claim: Did America Fake the Moon Landing?"

Full screen recommended.

Redacted, 5/10/23

"Head of Russia's Space Agency Drops Bombshell Claim:

Did America Fake the Moon Landing?"

"Did the U.S. really land on the moon? A former astronaut throws some serious shade on that possibility and he's got some compelling evidence."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Burger King Reports Large-Scale Shutdowns As Bankruptcies Hits America's Biggest Restaurant Chains"

Full screen recommended.

"Burger King Reports Large-Scale Shutdowns As 

Bankruptcies Hits America's Biggest Restaurant Chains"

By Epic Economist

"The second-largest fast-food chain in the U.S. is being ravaged by the ongoing economic downturn. Burger King is reporting that mass shutdowns are about to occur as foot traffic dramatically declines, sales disappoint, and several franchises file for bankruptcy. An alarming number of restaurants will be closed by the end of 2023, executives say. The company is dealing with increasingly tough competition in the marketplace from the likes of McDonald’s and Chipotle. Burger King also faces pressure from more upmarket chains including Five Guys and Shake Shack. Its U.S. operations have been struggling with profitability for years, and now many Americans will be forced to say goodbye to their local Burger King.

Since 2019, the company has been shuttering around 130 locations per year, with numbers varying due to economic reasons. Before the pandemic started, the U.S. had over 7,300 Burger King restaurants. Now, with 500 fewer stores, the chain is announcing what seems to be the biggest wave of closings it ever reported as its franchises fall into bankruptcy and the company acts to prevent a potential financial collapse. During an earnings call last week, the CEO of Restaurant Brands International Inc., the parent company of Burger King, stated that he plans to close 400 underperforming stores this year to streamline the fast-food brand. "Historically, we've closed about a hundred units at Burger King US," CEO Joshua Kobza said in a Q1 earnings call on last Tuesday. The expected closures this year will be well above the historical average. "Foot traffic was negative this quarter," Kboza noted.

Analysts told DailyMail.com that Burger King has been suffering with lagging sales in 90% of U.S. states, trailing behind Wendy's and its main rival, McDonald's. They said that the chain was at risk of entering into a 'death spiral' if it failed to play catch-up with its rivals. In the first three months, three Burger King franchisees have declared bankruptcy, including Illinois-based Toms King, Michigan-based EYM King, and Utah-based Meridian Restaurants Unlimited. At the same time, the company acknowledged that its revitalization would still result in more franchisees filing for bankruptcy or selling their business to other operators.

Industry experts note that the restaurant chain’s troubles significantly deteriorated since the pandemic. The firm was badly positioned when the health crisis hit compared to its rivals. Its digital platform was behind, so the brand scrambled to keep up with the demand for delivery when people could not visit restaurants in person.

The chain also suffered from a series of ill-fated menu revamps - including the Impossible Burger. Launched in 2016, executives said it was a meat-free alternative that couldn’t be found anywhere else in the fast food industry. But they faced a huge backlash when they admitted it would be cooked on the same equipment used for beef and chicken. Burger King must conduct this new business strategy very carefully because the chances it may turn out to be a failure are rising. Not even the biggest restaurant chains in America will be immune to the challenges that are coming for us. And it would be a shame to see this popular brand fading in the background."

Comments here:

-https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: Deuter, "Endless Horizon"

Deuter, "Endless Horizon"

About Deutur

- https://newearthrecords.com/

Beautiful...

"A Look to the Heavens"

"Sprawling emission nebulae IC 1396 and Sh2-129 mix glowing interstellar gas and dark dust clouds in this 10 degree wide field of view toward the northern constellation Cepheus the King. Energized by its bluish central star IC 1396 (left) is hundreds of light-years across and some 3,000 light-years distant. 

The nebula's intriguing dark shapes include a winding dark cloud popularly known as the Elephant's Trunk below and right of center. Tens of light-years long, it holds the raw raw material for star formation and is known to hide protostars within. Located a similar distance from planet Earth, the bright knots and swept back ridges of emission of Sh2-129 on the right suggest its popular name, the Flying Bat Nebula. Within the Flying Bat, the most recently recognized addition to this royal cosmic zoo is the faint bluish emission from Ou4, the Giant Squid nebula."

- https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210723.html

"Someday..."

"Someday stars will wind down or blow up. Someday death will cover us all like the water of a lake and perhaps nothing will ever come to the surface to show that we were ever there. But we WERE there, and during the time we lived, we were alive. That's the truth - what is, what was, what will be - not what could be, what should have been, what never can be."

- Orson Scott Card

"If You Do Not Know..."

"First of all, although men have a common destiny, each individual also has to work out his own personal salvation for himself in fear and trembling. We can help one another to find the meaning of life no doubt. But in the last analysis, the individual person is responsible for living his own life and for "finding himself." If he persists in shifting his responsibility to somebody else, he fails to find out the meaning of his own existence. You cannot tell me who I am and I cannot tell you who you are. If you do not know your own identity, who is going to identify you?"

- Thomas Merton

The Poet: Mary Oliver, "October"

“October”

"There’s this shape, black as the entrance to a cave.

A longing wells up in its throat

like a blossom

as it breathes slowly.

What does the world

mean to you if you can’t trust it

to go on shining when you’re

not there? and there’s

a tree, long-fallen; once

the bees flew to it, like a procession

of messengers, and filled it

with honey.

I said to the chickadee, singing his heart out in the

green pine tree:

little dazzler

little song,

little mouthful.

The shape climbs up out of the curled grass. It

grunts into view. There is no measure

for the confidence at the bottom of its eyes -

there is no telling

the suppleness of its shoulders as it turns

and yawns.

Near the fallen tree

something - a leaf snapped loose

from the branch and fluttering down - tries to pull me

into its trap of attention.

It pulls me

into its trap of attention,

And when I turn again, the bear is gone.

Look, hasn’t my body already felt

like the body of a flower?

Look, I want to love this world

as thought it’s the last chance I’m ever going to get

to be alive

and know it.

Sometimes in late summer I won’t touch anything, 

not the flowers, not the blackberries

brimming in the thickets; I won’t drink

from the pond; I won’t name the birds or the trees;

I won’t whisper my own name.

One morning

the fox came down the hill, glittering and confident,

and didn’t see me - and I thought:

so this is the world.

I’m not in it.

It is beautiful."

- Mary Oliver