https://www.oftwominds.com/blogjune20/depression-dominoes6-20.html
The Depression Dominoes Are Toppling
The pandemic lockdown will be blamed for the Greater Depression, but the lockdown only toppled all the dominoes that were already lined up. The lockdown would have been survivable if the economy hadn't been over-indebted, over-leveraged, burdened by insanely high costs, stripmined by greedy monopolies, dependent on stock market fraud, destabilized by extreme inequality, corrupted by political pay-to-play and addicted to speculation.
The apologists always blame depressions on central banks not printing money fast enough, while overlooking the real drivers: debt, high costs and dependence on speculative bubbles. As noted here many times, revenues and income can quickly slide lower, but debt must be serviced regardless of revenues and income.
Once debt payments dominate expenses, any wobble in revenues / income / cash flow triggers default.
Regarding unbearably high costs that only go higher, year after year: as noted here many times, Sickcare Will Bankrupt the Nation all by itself, never mind soaring higher education / student loan debt serfdom, skyrocketing rents, junk fees, taxes, etc.
U.S. Lifestyle + "Healthcare" = Bankruptcy (June 19, 2008)
How Healthcare Is Dooming the U.S. Economy (Three Charts) (May 2015)
The truth is the cost of living is unaffordable but we can't even acknowledge this obvious fact because even acknowledging it would threaten the entire house of cards. So instead we play-act as if we believe the bogus "inflation is dead" narratives.
The top 5% technocrat/managerial class have done very well for themselves in the speculative run-up of destabilizing inequality, and since they run the narrative machines, we're swamped with happy stories about the economy, all of which boil down to this absurd fantasy: since I'm doing so well, everyone else must be doing well, too.
Since the top 5% own the lion's share of the nation's productive assets--stocks, bonds, business equity, investment real estate, etc.-- the enormous asset bubbles have greatly boosted their wealth and income. This has enabled the wealthy to service their debt or pay it off. The bottom 95% aren't quite so well-placed to survive a decline in income.
Everyone who was barely keeping their head above water in making their debt payments is already in default or will soon be in default. Since the banks and shadow-banking lenders have gorged on the profits skimmed by loaning huge sums to marginal borrowers, now that these marginal borrowers are defaulting en masse the banks and lenders are about to be crushed by one wave of catastrophic losses after another.
Student loans--already in mass default. Credit cards--the wave is rolling in as we speak. Auto loans--looking like Waimea Bay on a big day. Mortgages--better not to look.
Corporate debt has exploded to unprecedented levels, and this is what will break the financial system. Zombie corporations are rushing to borrow billions of dollars (thanks to the Federal Reserve) but increasing their debt is only doing more of what created their fragility in the first place.
Being able to borrow more to service your old debts is not solvency, it's merely the semblance of solvency. We're in the eye of the hurricane right now, as everyone holds their breath and hopes some sort of magic will make all the debt that has to be serviced every month vanish.
It's worth recalling that every dollar of debt is someone else's asset and the source of their income. So when the defaults and bankruptcies sweep through the financial system, they'll obliterate all the "wealth" of those holding bundled student and auto loan securities, mortgage backed securities, corporate bonds, and destroy the income streams these trillions in debt generated.
All the linked fragilities and dependencies of our economy are like lines of dominoes: one default topples the entire line of dominoes of debt, leverage, derivatives, counterparty risk, credit default swaps and most devastating of all, any certainty that borrowers won't default in the future.
If banks and lenders can't lend with a high degree of certainty, lending dries up and profits collapse, along with the consumer spending that was enabled by the borrowing.
Despite their high incomes and net worth, some consequential percentage of top 5% households bringing in $300,000 a year are one layoff away from default: never mind their pristine 830 credit score; that was last month. Next month,next quarter, next year--all bets are off.
Once you allow your economy to become dependent on extremes of debt, leverage, inequality, legalized looting, monopoly, pay-to-play politics and speculative asset bubbles, a depression is inevitable. The only question is "when," and that's been answered, though nobody wants to hear it: 2020 and beyond.
It didn't have to end this way. If our leadership / Power Elites had acted to reduce all these painfully obvious speculative extremes, dependencies and fragilities and made even modest efforts to limit the exploitation of predatory parasites that generated unprecedented inequality and corruption over the past 12 years, the economy would have been much less brittle / fragile.
Wednesday, June 24, 2020
Tuesday, June 23, 2020
SC214-1
https://resourceinsights.blogspot.com/2020/06/the-financialization-of-end-of-world.html
The financialization of the end of the world
For those who are fans of cartoons from The New Yorker magazine and consistent readers of this blog, you might be able to guess my two favorite cartoons. In the first one, a man in a coat and tie stands at a podium and tells his unseen audience the following: "And so, while the end-of-the-world scenario will be rife with unimaginable horrors, we believe that the pre-end period will be filled with unprecedented opportunities for profit."
In the second, a man in a tattered suit sits cross-legged near a campfire with three children listening to him intently as he says this: "Yes, the planet got destroyed. But for a beautiful moment in time we created a lot of value for shareholders."
Now, in the you-can't-make-this-stuff-up category, financial writer Paul Farrell used the caption from the first cartoon in a 2015 piece for MarketWatch entitled: "Your No. 1 end-of-the-world investing strategy." The subheading is: "How to pick stocks for the near term when long-term trends say collapse is near." The subhead actually seems like it might be another caption from a New Yorker cartoon (or possibly one from The Onion). Why exactly would you invest in stocks—as opposed to seeds of food crops and sturdy garden implements—"when long-term trends say collapse is near"? But I'll put that down to bad headline writing.
In Farrell's defense, he frequently used his column in MarketWatch to warn his readers of the coming collapse of modern civilization if we don't change our ways. He was obliged to give investment advice, of course, because that's what the column was for.
Few other investment gurus are as intellectually honest as Farrell. Among prominent investment managers, only Jeremy Grantham comes close to understanding the scope of the challenges we face. Grantham wrote a piece in 2013 called "The Race of Our Lives" that outlines the myriad challenges humans face. He starts with a discussion of the fall of civilizations. (He updated his views in 2018.)
One would think that the coronavirus pandemic would allow for some sober reflection among those in the financial community as the pandemic-induced crash of the economy and the markets has called into question the stability of practically all the arrangements of modern civilization. Instead, the focus is on how stock markets could be back at or near all-times highs at the beginning of what is arguably the next Great Depression.
The New Yorker cartoons linked above appropriately characterize the madness that grips late-stage civilizations as their pillars begin to fall. Instead of attempting to adapt to new realities, every attempt is made to maintain the current fragile system. The trillions of dollars pumped into the world financial system by central banks and governments in the wake of the pandemic have done little except stoke renewed financial bubbles in practically all financial markets (and thereby bailed out the mostly wealthy owners of financial assets).
The disconnect is hard to miss. The latest reading of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta's GDPNow indicator, which is frequently updated as new data becomes available, now predicts that U.S. GDP will contract by 45.5 percent in the current quarter. (The number is annualized and seasonally adjusted.)
Even so the NASDAQ Composite Index hit a new all-time high earlier this month just three months after the recent trough reached during the crash. The S&P 500 is now very close to a new all-time high. Neither development makes sense in the middle of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. For comparison, it took more than two years for the NASDAQ Composite from the bottom in 2009 during the Great Financial Crisis to regain its 2007 highs. It took the S&P 500 more than four years.
Of course, the financialization of everything continues. Vaccine makers are in line for government funds. Naturally, it takes money to develop a vaccine. But drug makers aren't in the business of keeping people healthy. They are in the business of making money. In the United States at least they are helped by the fact that they aren't liable if their vaccine kills or injuries someone. And, executives in one money-losing pharmaceutical firm cashed in stock right after their company goosed the shares significantly higher with a very preliminary announcement about the company's coronavirus vaccine research.
When it comes to real estate, it used to be that people bought it for income and as a store of value. Now firms buy real estate mostly with borrowed money and try to make gains mostly through property price appreciation. Often the real estate loans are packaged into securities that are sold and resold as part of the giant Wall Street and worldwide financial casino.
One of the surest signs of the financialization of everything and the growing disconnect of finance from reality is the credit default swap (CDS). The CDS is essentially insurance for loans and bonds. The buyer pays the seller a premium every month. If the instrument insured defaults, the seller provides a predetermined payment to reimburse the CDS buyer. Now here's the weird thing: An investor doesn't even have to own the loan or bond to insure it. It's like me taking out an insurance policy on your home against fire when I have no ownership or interest in the home. In fact, I have every incentive to make sure your house burns down. Do you see any problem with that?
For normal insurance, the buyer must have an insurable interest. Typically, this means the buyer must actually own the thing he or she is insuring. The CDS, on the other hand, is an ideal instrument for those who want to bring on a financial end-of-the-world scenario. The buyers have every reason to want the economy to go down the drain as their payments may be 10 or even 20 times their initial investment.
Many wealthy people fear and even believe an end-of-the-world scenario is possible or probable. Some think they can hole up in luxury bunkers until the dust clears. But what if, when the dust clears, their wealth is gone and the financial world they used to inhabit has vanished.
Perhaps they will sit around campfires telling their grandchildren about the old days when finance was king and the real economy of goods and services was just a place where rubes got their daily bread—while, of course, simultaneously handing over an outsized portion to the rich.
The financialization of the end of the world
For those who are fans of cartoons from The New Yorker magazine and consistent readers of this blog, you might be able to guess my two favorite cartoons. In the first one, a man in a coat and tie stands at a podium and tells his unseen audience the following: "And so, while the end-of-the-world scenario will be rife with unimaginable horrors, we believe that the pre-end period will be filled with unprecedented opportunities for profit."
In the second, a man in a tattered suit sits cross-legged near a campfire with three children listening to him intently as he says this: "Yes, the planet got destroyed. But for a beautiful moment in time we created a lot of value for shareholders."
Now, in the you-can't-make-this-stuff-up category, financial writer Paul Farrell used the caption from the first cartoon in a 2015 piece for MarketWatch entitled: "Your No. 1 end-of-the-world investing strategy." The subheading is: "How to pick stocks for the near term when long-term trends say collapse is near." The subhead actually seems like it might be another caption from a New Yorker cartoon (or possibly one from The Onion). Why exactly would you invest in stocks—as opposed to seeds of food crops and sturdy garden implements—"when long-term trends say collapse is near"? But I'll put that down to bad headline writing.
In Farrell's defense, he frequently used his column in MarketWatch to warn his readers of the coming collapse of modern civilization if we don't change our ways. He was obliged to give investment advice, of course, because that's what the column was for.
Few other investment gurus are as intellectually honest as Farrell. Among prominent investment managers, only Jeremy Grantham comes close to understanding the scope of the challenges we face. Grantham wrote a piece in 2013 called "The Race of Our Lives" that outlines the myriad challenges humans face. He starts with a discussion of the fall of civilizations. (He updated his views in 2018.)
One would think that the coronavirus pandemic would allow for some sober reflection among those in the financial community as the pandemic-induced crash of the economy and the markets has called into question the stability of practically all the arrangements of modern civilization. Instead, the focus is on how stock markets could be back at or near all-times highs at the beginning of what is arguably the next Great Depression.
The New Yorker cartoons linked above appropriately characterize the madness that grips late-stage civilizations as their pillars begin to fall. Instead of attempting to adapt to new realities, every attempt is made to maintain the current fragile system. The trillions of dollars pumped into the world financial system by central banks and governments in the wake of the pandemic have done little except stoke renewed financial bubbles in practically all financial markets (and thereby bailed out the mostly wealthy owners of financial assets).
The disconnect is hard to miss. The latest reading of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta's GDPNow indicator, which is frequently updated as new data becomes available, now predicts that U.S. GDP will contract by 45.5 percent in the current quarter. (The number is annualized and seasonally adjusted.)
Even so the NASDAQ Composite Index hit a new all-time high earlier this month just three months after the recent trough reached during the crash. The S&P 500 is now very close to a new all-time high. Neither development makes sense in the middle of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. For comparison, it took more than two years for the NASDAQ Composite from the bottom in 2009 during the Great Financial Crisis to regain its 2007 highs. It took the S&P 500 more than four years.
Of course, the financialization of everything continues. Vaccine makers are in line for government funds. Naturally, it takes money to develop a vaccine. But drug makers aren't in the business of keeping people healthy. They are in the business of making money. In the United States at least they are helped by the fact that they aren't liable if their vaccine kills or injuries someone. And, executives in one money-losing pharmaceutical firm cashed in stock right after their company goosed the shares significantly higher with a very preliminary announcement about the company's coronavirus vaccine research.
When it comes to real estate, it used to be that people bought it for income and as a store of value. Now firms buy real estate mostly with borrowed money and try to make gains mostly through property price appreciation. Often the real estate loans are packaged into securities that are sold and resold as part of the giant Wall Street and worldwide financial casino.
One of the surest signs of the financialization of everything and the growing disconnect of finance from reality is the credit default swap (CDS). The CDS is essentially insurance for loans and bonds. The buyer pays the seller a premium every month. If the instrument insured defaults, the seller provides a predetermined payment to reimburse the CDS buyer. Now here's the weird thing: An investor doesn't even have to own the loan or bond to insure it. It's like me taking out an insurance policy on your home against fire when I have no ownership or interest in the home. In fact, I have every incentive to make sure your house burns down. Do you see any problem with that?
For normal insurance, the buyer must have an insurable interest. Typically, this means the buyer must actually own the thing he or she is insuring. The CDS, on the other hand, is an ideal instrument for those who want to bring on a financial end-of-the-world scenario. The buyers have every reason to want the economy to go down the drain as their payments may be 10 or even 20 times their initial investment.
Many wealthy people fear and even believe an end-of-the-world scenario is possible or probable. Some think they can hole up in luxury bunkers until the dust clears. But what if, when the dust clears, their wealth is gone and the financial world they used to inhabit has vanished.
Perhaps they will sit around campfires telling their grandchildren about the old days when finance was king and the real economy of goods and services was just a place where rubes got their daily bread—while, of course, simultaneously handing over an outsized portion to the rich.
Monday, June 22, 2020
SC213-15
https://www.globalresearch.ca/america-dysfunctional-economy/5716506
America’s Dysfunctional Economy. Massive Unemployment. Economic Collapse
The US ruling class bears full responsibility for the economy’s unprecedented dysfunctional state. What was unimaginable long ago is reality today, redefining what house of cards economic conditions are all about.
It’s an unsustainable situation certain to implode ahead with longterm devastating consequences for ordinary Americans — paying the price so privileged ones can benefit.
Since March, unprecedented numbers of US workers applied for unemployment benefits, around 46 million so far, according to Labor Department data.
It’s an undercount as applications of many filers haven’t been processed, more coming as layoff announcements continue.
According to Bloomberg News, about one-third of Americans who applied for unemployment benefits received nothing so far.
A Bloomberg analysis showed that unemployed US workers should have received $214 billion in benefits through May.
As of early June, they’ve only gotten $146 billion — benefits for recipients to expire at end of July if not renewed, what’s likely because of GOP leadership opposition to continue them.
An earlier McKinsey research analysis said up to one-third of US workers could be unemployed by 2030 because robots are replacing humans, adding:
Around “60 percent of occupations have at least 30 percent of constituent work activities that could be automated.”
Who’ll buy what industry produces if mass unemployment as the new normal greatly reduces personal income overall?
The extraordinary disconnect between equity prices and economic reality in the US is unprecedented.
According to economist David Rosenberg, “(w)hat we have now is nothing short of market manipulation.”
“Reducing the cost of overnight funds is one thing.”
“Extending the intervention to Treasuries or high-quality securities is something we became accustomed to in the aftermath of the last Great Recession.”
“That’s when the (Wall Street owned) Fed became a duration bond manager.”
“But the central bank is now becoming a hedge fund.”
“Adding low-quality corporate credits to its balance sheet is a whole different game.”
Fed market manipulation is “keeping zombie companies alive, rendering fundamental analysis and price discovery obsolete, and leading to a complete misallocation of resources.”
“Capitalism has taken a semi-permanent vacation. AWOL.”
“And what it means for the future of society, to be running such reckless and feckless fiscal and monetary policies, is troublesome to say the least.”
“There is zero chance this ends well…The market is rigged pure and simple.”
“(R)emember that (earlier) bubble(s) came crashing down, and there was nothing the Fed could do about it.”
“Societies that run their policies on such guilt truly are doomed, and that is what historians will be writing about in the future.”
By going all out to benefit corporate favorites and investors through unprecedented and reckless casino capitalism, US policymakers and the Fed sacrificed the economy and ordinary Americans.
A Thursday Wall Street Journal article reflected a key aspect of the US economy’s dismal state, saying:
“Americans have skipped payments on more than 100 million student loans, auto loans and other forms of debt since the coronavirus hit the US, the latest sign of the toll the pandemic is taking on people’s finances,” adding:
“The surge in missed payments suggests that the flood of layoffs related to the coronavirus has left many Americans without the means to keep up with their debts.”
“Many people have used up their stimulus checks, and unemployment benefits in high-cost areas aren’t enough to replace paychecks or to help debt-laden borrowers pay down their bills.”
An unfolding situation in Kentucky is happening elsewhere nationwide.
Numbers filing for unemployment benefits are so large and backed up that state police said individuals at the end of a Frankfort queue will wait up to eight hours to speak to a representative to get their claim processed.
A queue at the Kentucky Career Center had people waiting 10 hours for unemployment claim help.
All of the above is on top of growing US food insecurity, hunger, and homelessness in the world’s richest nation.
Its ruling class under both right wings of the one-party state proved it’s dismissive of public health and welfare even during unprecedented hard times, likely to be protracted.
There’s no economic recovery in prospect, only the illusion of improvement at a time of unprecedented widespread deprivation and continuing layoffs.
Increasing numbers of COVID-19 outbreaks in many US states are part of the first wave.
A second, potentially much larger, one may come this fall and winter, making economic collapse worse if happens.
It’s why self-protection caution is essential to maintain, what’s likely to be the case for some time.
Economic collapse caused far greater harm to millions of Americans than coronavirus outbreaks.
Manufactured main street Depression begun in 2008 was deepened this year by its ruling class.
It’s all about the greatest ever wealth transfer from ordinary people to privileged US interests, along with enabling corporate favorites to reduce competition.
Ordinary Americans are paying the price, exploited so privileged ones can benefit.
That’s the disturbing reality of today’s new normal.
Manufactured current conditions made the US more unsafe and unfit to live in than at any previous time in modern memory — with no end of harder than ever hard times for ordinary Americans in prospect.
America’s Dysfunctional Economy. Massive Unemployment. Economic Collapse
The US ruling class bears full responsibility for the economy’s unprecedented dysfunctional state. What was unimaginable long ago is reality today, redefining what house of cards economic conditions are all about.
It’s an unsustainable situation certain to implode ahead with longterm devastating consequences for ordinary Americans — paying the price so privileged ones can benefit.
Since March, unprecedented numbers of US workers applied for unemployment benefits, around 46 million so far, according to Labor Department data.
It’s an undercount as applications of many filers haven’t been processed, more coming as layoff announcements continue.
According to Bloomberg News, about one-third of Americans who applied for unemployment benefits received nothing so far.
A Bloomberg analysis showed that unemployed US workers should have received $214 billion in benefits through May.
As of early June, they’ve only gotten $146 billion — benefits for recipients to expire at end of July if not renewed, what’s likely because of GOP leadership opposition to continue them.
An earlier McKinsey research analysis said up to one-third of US workers could be unemployed by 2030 because robots are replacing humans, adding:
Around “60 percent of occupations have at least 30 percent of constituent work activities that could be automated.”
Who’ll buy what industry produces if mass unemployment as the new normal greatly reduces personal income overall?
The extraordinary disconnect between equity prices and economic reality in the US is unprecedented.
According to economist David Rosenberg, “(w)hat we have now is nothing short of market manipulation.”
“Reducing the cost of overnight funds is one thing.”
“Extending the intervention to Treasuries or high-quality securities is something we became accustomed to in the aftermath of the last Great Recession.”
“That’s when the (Wall Street owned) Fed became a duration bond manager.”
“But the central bank is now becoming a hedge fund.”
“Adding low-quality corporate credits to its balance sheet is a whole different game.”
Fed market manipulation is “keeping zombie companies alive, rendering fundamental analysis and price discovery obsolete, and leading to a complete misallocation of resources.”
“Capitalism has taken a semi-permanent vacation. AWOL.”
“And what it means for the future of society, to be running such reckless and feckless fiscal and monetary policies, is troublesome to say the least.”
“There is zero chance this ends well…The market is rigged pure and simple.”
“(R)emember that (earlier) bubble(s) came crashing down, and there was nothing the Fed could do about it.”
“Societies that run their policies on such guilt truly are doomed, and that is what historians will be writing about in the future.”
By going all out to benefit corporate favorites and investors through unprecedented and reckless casino capitalism, US policymakers and the Fed sacrificed the economy and ordinary Americans.
A Thursday Wall Street Journal article reflected a key aspect of the US economy’s dismal state, saying:
“Americans have skipped payments on more than 100 million student loans, auto loans and other forms of debt since the coronavirus hit the US, the latest sign of the toll the pandemic is taking on people’s finances,” adding:
“The surge in missed payments suggests that the flood of layoffs related to the coronavirus has left many Americans without the means to keep up with their debts.”
“Many people have used up their stimulus checks, and unemployment benefits in high-cost areas aren’t enough to replace paychecks or to help debt-laden borrowers pay down their bills.”
An unfolding situation in Kentucky is happening elsewhere nationwide.
Numbers filing for unemployment benefits are so large and backed up that state police said individuals at the end of a Frankfort queue will wait up to eight hours to speak to a representative to get their claim processed.
A queue at the Kentucky Career Center had people waiting 10 hours for unemployment claim help.
All of the above is on top of growing US food insecurity, hunger, and homelessness in the world’s richest nation.
Its ruling class under both right wings of the one-party state proved it’s dismissive of public health and welfare even during unprecedented hard times, likely to be protracted.
There’s no economic recovery in prospect, only the illusion of improvement at a time of unprecedented widespread deprivation and continuing layoffs.
Increasing numbers of COVID-19 outbreaks in many US states are part of the first wave.
A second, potentially much larger, one may come this fall and winter, making economic collapse worse if happens.
It’s why self-protection caution is essential to maintain, what’s likely to be the case for some time.
Economic collapse caused far greater harm to millions of Americans than coronavirus outbreaks.
Manufactured main street Depression begun in 2008 was deepened this year by its ruling class.
It’s all about the greatest ever wealth transfer from ordinary people to privileged US interests, along with enabling corporate favorites to reduce competition.
Ordinary Americans are paying the price, exploited so privileged ones can benefit.
That’s the disturbing reality of today’s new normal.
Manufactured current conditions made the US more unsafe and unfit to live in than at any previous time in modern memory — with no end of harder than ever hard times for ordinary Americans in prospect.
Sunday, June 21, 2020
SC213-14
https://www.oftwominds.com/blogjune20/Fed-junkies6-20.html
Dear Junkies Addicted to Fed Smack: The Monkey on Your Back Is Now a Gorilla
Dear junkies addicted to the Federal Reserve's free-money smack: like all addicts, you firmly believe you're not addicted. Never mind those tracks, you can stop any time. Yeah, sure, but we all know you're going to buy the dip and max out your margin account because the craving cannot be denied.
Speaking of denial: you don't realize you're the dealers' chumps, the bagholders who bought at the top who the dealers are counting on to cling on to the bitter end because those Fed speedballs have inspired a euphoric faith in your god-like trading powers.
Here's how it ends, figuratively speaking: you'll wake up inside your Mercedes in a god-forsaken patch of urban wreckage, all the doors will be locked and you won't remember even leaving the party, much less how you got here.
You'll compulsively check your account and find that your margin call exceeds the value of your entire portfolio because the bottom dropped out while you were in a Fed-smack-induced haze, dreaming of prancing unicorns and angels dancing in the head of a pin.
Only now will you understand you were not a trading genius who would get out at the top, no problem, but a bagholder, played perfectly by the big dealers who sold to you. Now you're wiped out because you don't have enough cash to cover the margin call that's left after your portfolio was liquidated.
You thought that monkey on your back was light as a feather, but now it transmogrified overnight into a crushing gorilla. The dealers who you thought were your pals at the party made sure you wouldn't be around to cause a scene when you found you could no longer count on the Fed's baggies of the good stuff.
While you gird yourself for the agonies of cold turkey, consider Exhibit 1, the Fed'a balance sheet in February 2020:
2/5/20 $4.166 Trillion
2/12/20 $4.182 Trillion
2/19/20 $4.171 Trillion
Notice anything about the Fed's supply of free-money smack? It dried up. But all the junkies didn't notice because they were so sure that the Fed's supply of junk was infinite.
A funny thing happened on February 19--the market topped out and crashed the following week. Now look at this month's supply of Fed smack:
6/3/20 $7.165 Trillion
6/10/20 $7.168 Trillion
6/17/20 $7.094 Trillion
Umm, notice any similarity?
Fed junkies know one thing: the only thing that matters is the Fed's junk. Real economy: doesn't matter. Corporate sales: doesn't matter. Corporate profits: doesn't matter. Tax receipts: doesn't matter. Household income: doesn't matter.
The only thing that matters is the Fed is supplying baggies of the good stuff. Spoken like a true junkie, my friend, but once the high wears off consider what the Fed can't do:
1. It can't reverse the unprecedented wealth inequality its policies have pushed to the point of social disintegration and breakdown.
2. It can't make people take on the risks and heartaches of starting new businesses.
3. It can't force employers to hire more employees.
4. It can't make unprofitable businesses profitable.
5. It can't force people to buy assets at prices that no longer make financial sense.
6. It can't make insolvent businesses and local governments solvent.
7. It can't force people who now realize their priority is to save money to spend their cash, even if the Fed forces negative interest rates.
8. It can't lower the unaffordable cost structure of the entire economy.
9. It can't de-link all the financial dependencies in the financial system that make it so vulnerable to the first domino falling.
10. It can't stop people from selling their assets.
In summary, The Fed can't stop the unwinding of an unsustainable bubble of epic proportions. We are entering The Greatest Depression because Fed smack has zero effect on the real world; its only effect is to increase the delusion that asset bubbles are all that matters.
Also recall that the Deep State is not going to allow Jay Powell to re-elect Donald Trump with a stock market rally. From the point of view of the inner circle of the Deep State, the market collapse in March was simply a test to confirm what happens when the free-money smack is withdrawn. The test was a success and now the real crash can begin. Only this time it won't last three weeks. It will last all the way through October because, well, you know why: Deep State to Powell: Stop Goosing Stocks Higher Or You'll Re-Elect Trump.
....
https://cluborlov.blogspot.com/2020/06/post-collapse-administration.html
Post-Collapse Administration
I have noticed a marked tendency to think that once the coronavirus blows over everything will go back to the way it was before—or even better, because of Elon Musk’s electric flying cars and fly-thru sex change clinics or what have you. A simple explanation for this tendency is that it is what people want to think: everyone just wants to go back to what they are used to, picking up where they left off and tickling their wild fancies any way they wish. A slightly more nuanced explanation is that the new, post-collapse reality is a mysterious, unfamiliar realm and that for many people thinking about it is too uncomfortable (if done right) or downright pointless (if it consists of cobbling together stereotypes from movies such as Mad Max and Waterworld or other such post-apocalyptic theme park attractions).
Those who wish to think that what’s happening is just a hiccough caused by a not particularly deadly virus and that this will all blow over soon enough are sure to be disappointed. Taking the US as an example, the crisis clearly started before the virus hit, as evidenced by the steady and quite noticeable slowing of the physical economy since 2018, evidenced by such boring statistics as the lack of sales of new long-haul trucks. But that was before all hell broke loose.
Since February 2020 the US lost 46 million full-time jobs, which is over a third of the overall workforce. Bloomberg forecasts that these jobs will come back no sooner than in six years—and only if in the meantime there is steady economic growth. But then the Congressional Budget Office predicts a GDP decrease of 5.6% and 10 years for it to recover (assuming that the worst is already over) so steady economic growth seems like a bit of a pipe dream. In fact, the Federal Reserve is predicting a second quarter GDP decrease of 52.8%, and so the CBO prediction is only plausible to believers in a V-shaped recovery that doesn’t seem to be happening. I, on the other hand, believe that this recession/depression/collapse has been brought to you by the letter L and the number 0.
A more reasonable expectation is that with the economy already shrunk by half another 20% of full-time jobs will need to be lost in the coming months in a wave of bankruptcies that have so far been held back by various emergency measures such as temporary unemployment benefits, moratoria on evictions and foreclosures, delays in student loan repayment, three-month tax holidays, etc. To keep the financial house of cards from pancaking the US federal debt had to go from $21 trillion to $28 trillion in a rather short period of time, and how much longer this can go on is anyone’s guess, but there seems to be consensus that it can’t go on forever. Meanwhile, data from May 2020 indicates that 26% of Americans could not feed themselves independently, and as this number continues to go up it will become increasingly impossible to ignore the fact that the cupboard is indeed bare and that the once wealthiest nation in the world is now a nation of beggars.
Once a solid majority of the population becomes destitute, what will become of the world’s greatest superpower, the indispensable nation, that shining beacon of freedom and democracy and embodiment of the can-do spirit with liberty and justice for all? On the ground, there are sure to be lots of dumpsters on fire, lots of shops looted, boarded up and out of business, various sections of downtowns becoming police no-go zones (if police are still to be found anywhere) presided over by heavily armed thugs. After all the statues of white imperialist exploiters and oppressors of yore are toppled and all the white people forced to kneel before some very nice people who hail from the ghetto, there is sure to come a moment (at least for those who at that point are still capable of some semblance of rational thought) to ask an obvious question: What, if anything, comes next?....
Dear Junkies Addicted to Fed Smack: The Monkey on Your Back Is Now a Gorilla
Dear junkies addicted to the Federal Reserve's free-money smack: like all addicts, you firmly believe you're not addicted. Never mind those tracks, you can stop any time. Yeah, sure, but we all know you're going to buy the dip and max out your margin account because the craving cannot be denied.
Speaking of denial: you don't realize you're the dealers' chumps, the bagholders who bought at the top who the dealers are counting on to cling on to the bitter end because those Fed speedballs have inspired a euphoric faith in your god-like trading powers.
Here's how it ends, figuratively speaking: you'll wake up inside your Mercedes in a god-forsaken patch of urban wreckage, all the doors will be locked and you won't remember even leaving the party, much less how you got here.
You'll compulsively check your account and find that your margin call exceeds the value of your entire portfolio because the bottom dropped out while you were in a Fed-smack-induced haze, dreaming of prancing unicorns and angels dancing in the head of a pin.
Only now will you understand you were not a trading genius who would get out at the top, no problem, but a bagholder, played perfectly by the big dealers who sold to you. Now you're wiped out because you don't have enough cash to cover the margin call that's left after your portfolio was liquidated.
You thought that monkey on your back was light as a feather, but now it transmogrified overnight into a crushing gorilla. The dealers who you thought were your pals at the party made sure you wouldn't be around to cause a scene when you found you could no longer count on the Fed's baggies of the good stuff.
While you gird yourself for the agonies of cold turkey, consider Exhibit 1, the Fed'a balance sheet in February 2020:
2/5/20 $4.166 Trillion
2/12/20 $4.182 Trillion
2/19/20 $4.171 Trillion
Notice anything about the Fed's supply of free-money smack? It dried up. But all the junkies didn't notice because they were so sure that the Fed's supply of junk was infinite.
A funny thing happened on February 19--the market topped out and crashed the following week. Now look at this month's supply of Fed smack:
6/3/20 $7.165 Trillion
6/10/20 $7.168 Trillion
6/17/20 $7.094 Trillion
Umm, notice any similarity?
Fed junkies know one thing: the only thing that matters is the Fed's junk. Real economy: doesn't matter. Corporate sales: doesn't matter. Corporate profits: doesn't matter. Tax receipts: doesn't matter. Household income: doesn't matter.
The only thing that matters is the Fed is supplying baggies of the good stuff. Spoken like a true junkie, my friend, but once the high wears off consider what the Fed can't do:
1. It can't reverse the unprecedented wealth inequality its policies have pushed to the point of social disintegration and breakdown.
2. It can't make people take on the risks and heartaches of starting new businesses.
3. It can't force employers to hire more employees.
4. It can't make unprofitable businesses profitable.
5. It can't force people to buy assets at prices that no longer make financial sense.
6. It can't make insolvent businesses and local governments solvent.
7. It can't force people who now realize their priority is to save money to spend their cash, even if the Fed forces negative interest rates.
8. It can't lower the unaffordable cost structure of the entire economy.
9. It can't de-link all the financial dependencies in the financial system that make it so vulnerable to the first domino falling.
10. It can't stop people from selling their assets.
In summary, The Fed can't stop the unwinding of an unsustainable bubble of epic proportions. We are entering The Greatest Depression because Fed smack has zero effect on the real world; its only effect is to increase the delusion that asset bubbles are all that matters.
Also recall that the Deep State is not going to allow Jay Powell to re-elect Donald Trump with a stock market rally. From the point of view of the inner circle of the Deep State, the market collapse in March was simply a test to confirm what happens when the free-money smack is withdrawn. The test was a success and now the real crash can begin. Only this time it won't last three weeks. It will last all the way through October because, well, you know why: Deep State to Powell: Stop Goosing Stocks Higher Or You'll Re-Elect Trump.
....
https://cluborlov.blogspot.com/2020/06/post-collapse-administration.html
Post-Collapse Administration
I have noticed a marked tendency to think that once the coronavirus blows over everything will go back to the way it was before—or even better, because of Elon Musk’s electric flying cars and fly-thru sex change clinics or what have you. A simple explanation for this tendency is that it is what people want to think: everyone just wants to go back to what they are used to, picking up where they left off and tickling their wild fancies any way they wish. A slightly more nuanced explanation is that the new, post-collapse reality is a mysterious, unfamiliar realm and that for many people thinking about it is too uncomfortable (if done right) or downright pointless (if it consists of cobbling together stereotypes from movies such as Mad Max and Waterworld or other such post-apocalyptic theme park attractions).
Those who wish to think that what’s happening is just a hiccough caused by a not particularly deadly virus and that this will all blow over soon enough are sure to be disappointed. Taking the US as an example, the crisis clearly started before the virus hit, as evidenced by the steady and quite noticeable slowing of the physical economy since 2018, evidenced by such boring statistics as the lack of sales of new long-haul trucks. But that was before all hell broke loose.
Since February 2020 the US lost 46 million full-time jobs, which is over a third of the overall workforce. Bloomberg forecasts that these jobs will come back no sooner than in six years—and only if in the meantime there is steady economic growth. But then the Congressional Budget Office predicts a GDP decrease of 5.6% and 10 years for it to recover (assuming that the worst is already over) so steady economic growth seems like a bit of a pipe dream. In fact, the Federal Reserve is predicting a second quarter GDP decrease of 52.8%, and so the CBO prediction is only plausible to believers in a V-shaped recovery that doesn’t seem to be happening. I, on the other hand, believe that this recession/depression/collapse has been brought to you by the letter L and the number 0.
A more reasonable expectation is that with the economy already shrunk by half another 20% of full-time jobs will need to be lost in the coming months in a wave of bankruptcies that have so far been held back by various emergency measures such as temporary unemployment benefits, moratoria on evictions and foreclosures, delays in student loan repayment, three-month tax holidays, etc. To keep the financial house of cards from pancaking the US federal debt had to go from $21 trillion to $28 trillion in a rather short period of time, and how much longer this can go on is anyone’s guess, but there seems to be consensus that it can’t go on forever. Meanwhile, data from May 2020 indicates that 26% of Americans could not feed themselves independently, and as this number continues to go up it will become increasingly impossible to ignore the fact that the cupboard is indeed bare and that the once wealthiest nation in the world is now a nation of beggars.
Once a solid majority of the population becomes destitute, what will become of the world’s greatest superpower, the indispensable nation, that shining beacon of freedom and democracy and embodiment of the can-do spirit with liberty and justice for all? On the ground, there are sure to be lots of dumpsters on fire, lots of shops looted, boarded up and out of business, various sections of downtowns becoming police no-go zones (if police are still to be found anywhere) presided over by heavily armed thugs. After all the statues of white imperialist exploiters and oppressors of yore are toppled and all the white people forced to kneel before some very nice people who hail from the ghetto, there is sure to come a moment (at least for those who at that point are still capable of some semblance of rational thought) to ask an obvious question: What, if anything, comes next?....
Saturday, June 20, 2020
SC213-13
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/rumors-of-wars-china-india-north-korea-south-korea-israel-and-turkey-all-move-toward-war
Rumors Of Wars: China, India, North Korea, South Korea, Israel And Turkey All Move Toward War
As if we didn’t have enough already going on in 2020, now we are facing the possibility that several regional wars may erupt. China and India had both been pouring troops into a disputed border region, and now there has been an incident where they were actually killing each other. On the Korean peninsula, North Korea just blew up “a joint liaison office” that it had used for talks with the South Korean government. And in the Middle East, Turkey is warning of grave consequences if Israel goes ahead with a plan to annex portions of Judea and Samaria. If a major regional war erupts at even one of these flashpoints, it will be another devastating blow for a global economy that is already imploding, and there is a very strong probability that the U.S. and other major western powers could be drawn into the conflict.
Right now, most Americans are focused on our internal problems, and so they are paying very little attention to the growing crisis on the border between China and India.
Both nations had sent substantial contingents of troops to an area of the border that has long been disputed, and a meeting that was supposed to defuse tensions actually resulted in soldiers killing one another…
Chinese state media described the incident Monday night in the Galwan River valley where both countries have deployed troops in recent weeks as “the most serious clash between Chinese and Indian soldiers so far,” confirming casualties but offering no further details about them. Indian government sources speaking on the condition of anonymity told The Times of India that 20 Indian army personnel had died in the fighting.
American intelligence believes 35 Chinese troops died, including one senior officer, a source familiar with that assessment tells U.S. News. The incident took place during a meeting in the mountainous region between the two sides – both of which had agreed to disarm – to determine how the two militaries would safely withdraw their presences from the region.
This is the very first time in decades that Chinese and Indian troops have killed each other, and apparently very little shooting was involved…
The meeting grew tense and resulted in a physical confrontation between the troops. According to the assessment, all of the casualties were from the use of batons and knives and from falls from the steep topography, the source says.
That sounds like a scene from an overly gory Hollywood war movie, but reportedly this actually happened.
Hopefully the leaders of the two nations will be able to cool tensions for a while, but the Chinese have a very long history of very bitter border disputes with their neighbors, and without a doubt China will continue to make attempts to exercise sovereignty over this area.
Meanwhile, tensions on the Korean peninsula have risen to a level that we haven’t seen in many, many years. On Tuesday, North Korea actually blew up a building that had been used for negotiations with South Korea…
North Korea has blown up a joint liaison office used for talks between itself and South Korea, the latest sign that ties between the two longtime adversaries are rapidly deteriorating.
North Korean state media reported that the four-story building, which is located in the town of Kaesong just north of the demilitarized zone that divides the two Koreas, was “completely destroyed by a “terrific explosion” at 2:50 p.m. local time.
That is certainly one way to make a statement.
And this comes just days after Kim Jong Un’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, had issued a very ominous warning…
In a cryptic statement late Saturday, Kim Yo Jong vowed her country would “soon take a next action” against South Korea — a move she suggested would be carried out by the country’s military.
“By exercising my power authorized by the Supreme Leader, our Party and the state, I gave an instruction to the arms of the department in charge of the affairs with enemy to decisively carry out the next action,” Kim said in the state-run Korean Central News Agency.
All of a sudden, North Korea’s approach to relations with South Korea has dramatically shifted, and that shift has coincided with Kim Yo Jong taking a much more prominent role in national affairs.
I believe that there is much more going on in North Korea than we are being told, and Kim Yo Jong appears to favor a much more militant approach than what we have become accustomed to in recent years.
Over in the Middle East, the Times of Israel is reporting that the IDF is gearing up for a “state of war” as Israel prepares to annex portions of Judea and Samaria…
Just over two weeks before a possible Israeli annexation of some as-yet unspecified portion of the West Bank, the Israel Defense Forces is preparing for a wide range of scenarios for potential regional fallout — up to and including a large-scale wave of terror attacks — while still not being told exactly what the government has in mind.
The military is gearing up for possible massive unrest, Channel 12 reported Sunday evening, including what it is calling a potential “state of war” characterized by a Second Intifada-style onslaught of suicide bombing attacks.
This week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once again made it clear that he does not intend to alter his plans, and that means that the process of annexation could start as soon as the beginning of July.
A few weeks ago, I wrote an entire article about how this could potentially spark a major war in the region, and Arab leaders continue to make it clear that there will be “consequences” if Israel goes through with this…
Israel’s plan to extend its sovereignty to the Jordan Valley, and parts of Judea and Samaria, will “destroy all hopes” for lasting peace in the Middle East, Turkey’s top diplomat said on Wednesday.
“If the occupying power [Israel] crosses the red line, we [Muslim countries] must show that this will have consequences,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said during a special meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation Executive Committee, according to Turkey’s Anadolu Agency.
We shall see what happens.
I think that Netanyahu is convinced that Donald Trump is probably going to lose in November, and so that means that he probably believes that he only has a window of a few months in which he could annex portions of Judea and Samaria with U.S. support.
It appears that Netanyahu is absolutely determined to move forward, and it also appears that Israel’s Arab neighbors are prepared to respond very forcefully.
In just a few weeks, missiles could start flying back and forth, and the entire Middle East could erupt in flames....
....without a doubt we are living during a time of “wars and rumors of wars”, and it certainly isn’t going to take much to unleash a major conflict.
Rumors Of Wars: China, India, North Korea, South Korea, Israel And Turkey All Move Toward War
As if we didn’t have enough already going on in 2020, now we are facing the possibility that several regional wars may erupt. China and India had both been pouring troops into a disputed border region, and now there has been an incident where they were actually killing each other. On the Korean peninsula, North Korea just blew up “a joint liaison office” that it had used for talks with the South Korean government. And in the Middle East, Turkey is warning of grave consequences if Israel goes ahead with a plan to annex portions of Judea and Samaria. If a major regional war erupts at even one of these flashpoints, it will be another devastating blow for a global economy that is already imploding, and there is a very strong probability that the U.S. and other major western powers could be drawn into the conflict.
Right now, most Americans are focused on our internal problems, and so they are paying very little attention to the growing crisis on the border between China and India.
Both nations had sent substantial contingents of troops to an area of the border that has long been disputed, and a meeting that was supposed to defuse tensions actually resulted in soldiers killing one another…
Chinese state media described the incident Monday night in the Galwan River valley where both countries have deployed troops in recent weeks as “the most serious clash between Chinese and Indian soldiers so far,” confirming casualties but offering no further details about them. Indian government sources speaking on the condition of anonymity told The Times of India that 20 Indian army personnel had died in the fighting.
American intelligence believes 35 Chinese troops died, including one senior officer, a source familiar with that assessment tells U.S. News. The incident took place during a meeting in the mountainous region between the two sides – both of which had agreed to disarm – to determine how the two militaries would safely withdraw their presences from the region.
This is the very first time in decades that Chinese and Indian troops have killed each other, and apparently very little shooting was involved…
The meeting grew tense and resulted in a physical confrontation between the troops. According to the assessment, all of the casualties were from the use of batons and knives and from falls from the steep topography, the source says.
That sounds like a scene from an overly gory Hollywood war movie, but reportedly this actually happened.
Hopefully the leaders of the two nations will be able to cool tensions for a while, but the Chinese have a very long history of very bitter border disputes with their neighbors, and without a doubt China will continue to make attempts to exercise sovereignty over this area.
Meanwhile, tensions on the Korean peninsula have risen to a level that we haven’t seen in many, many years. On Tuesday, North Korea actually blew up a building that had been used for negotiations with South Korea…
North Korea has blown up a joint liaison office used for talks between itself and South Korea, the latest sign that ties between the two longtime adversaries are rapidly deteriorating.
North Korean state media reported that the four-story building, which is located in the town of Kaesong just north of the demilitarized zone that divides the two Koreas, was “completely destroyed by a “terrific explosion” at 2:50 p.m. local time.
That is certainly one way to make a statement.
And this comes just days after Kim Jong Un’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, had issued a very ominous warning…
In a cryptic statement late Saturday, Kim Yo Jong vowed her country would “soon take a next action” against South Korea — a move she suggested would be carried out by the country’s military.
“By exercising my power authorized by the Supreme Leader, our Party and the state, I gave an instruction to the arms of the department in charge of the affairs with enemy to decisively carry out the next action,” Kim said in the state-run Korean Central News Agency.
All of a sudden, North Korea’s approach to relations with South Korea has dramatically shifted, and that shift has coincided with Kim Yo Jong taking a much more prominent role in national affairs.
I believe that there is much more going on in North Korea than we are being told, and Kim Yo Jong appears to favor a much more militant approach than what we have become accustomed to in recent years.
Over in the Middle East, the Times of Israel is reporting that the IDF is gearing up for a “state of war” as Israel prepares to annex portions of Judea and Samaria…
Just over two weeks before a possible Israeli annexation of some as-yet unspecified portion of the West Bank, the Israel Defense Forces is preparing for a wide range of scenarios for potential regional fallout — up to and including a large-scale wave of terror attacks — while still not being told exactly what the government has in mind.
The military is gearing up for possible massive unrest, Channel 12 reported Sunday evening, including what it is calling a potential “state of war” characterized by a Second Intifada-style onslaught of suicide bombing attacks.
This week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once again made it clear that he does not intend to alter his plans, and that means that the process of annexation could start as soon as the beginning of July.
A few weeks ago, I wrote an entire article about how this could potentially spark a major war in the region, and Arab leaders continue to make it clear that there will be “consequences” if Israel goes through with this…
Israel’s plan to extend its sovereignty to the Jordan Valley, and parts of Judea and Samaria, will “destroy all hopes” for lasting peace in the Middle East, Turkey’s top diplomat said on Wednesday.
“If the occupying power [Israel] crosses the red line, we [Muslim countries] must show that this will have consequences,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said during a special meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation Executive Committee, according to Turkey’s Anadolu Agency.
We shall see what happens.
I think that Netanyahu is convinced that Donald Trump is probably going to lose in November, and so that means that he probably believes that he only has a window of a few months in which he could annex portions of Judea and Samaria with U.S. support.
It appears that Netanyahu is absolutely determined to move forward, and it also appears that Israel’s Arab neighbors are prepared to respond very forcefully.
In just a few weeks, missiles could start flying back and forth, and the entire Middle East could erupt in flames....
....without a doubt we are living during a time of “wars and rumors of wars”, and it certainly isn’t going to take much to unleash a major conflict.
Friday, June 19, 2020
SC214-12
https://www.globalresearch.ca/america-empire-eating-itself/5716163
America: An Empire Eating Itself
Empire has one trick - divide and conquer. When it runs out of territory, nations, and people abroad to consume, it turns inward on itself.
The United States finds itself in a less-than-unique position of an empire in terminal decline. With nations around the globe standing up economically, militarily, and politically – closing off once lucrative avenues of exploitation – the US finds itself turning more and more inwardly upon its allies and even its own population – either to wring from it whatever wealth it can or at the very least – to prevent the displacement of America’s current ruling special interests by any sort of alternative.
Geopolitical expert and analyst F. William Engdahl did an impressive job pointing out how current turmoil in the United States is being driven not by grassroots efforts to confront these special interests but by these special interests themselves.
No matter what people thought they were going into the streets for – for a nation adept at engineering revolutions abroad – there is no way it won’t turn those same tools and techniques inward on unrest at home – ensuring it is channeled in the safest and most profitable way possible.
Cancel Culture’s Deliberate Futility: A Tale of Two Chain-Restaurants
To point out just how absurd America’s “woke revolution” and its opponents are, consider Domino’s Pizza and Shake Shack. Both find themselves the targets of opposite ends of America’s current turmoil. Domino’s for at one point in the distant past supporting people who now find themselves among US President Donald Trump’s administration, and Shake Shack for its anemic response to allegations its employees poisoned New York City police officers.
Those promising to boycott one and patronize the other to spite their political opponents never bothered to check who actually owns these two large food and beverage businesses. If they did – they’d see that the exact same handful of investment firms own both.
Investors at Blackrock, Vanguard, or State Street Global Advisors – who own significant shares and profit from both Shake Shack and Domino’s – don’t care which restaurant you boycott so long as you patronize another in their portfolio to spite your superficial political opponents. They are deliberately funding both sides of the turmoil to ensure that this is precisely how America’s “woke revolution” plays out.
Notice no one in the spotlight is saying “Wall Street.” Or saying “boycott them all.” Or pointing out that while poisoning cops or supporting President Trump seems “bad,” it pales vastly in the face of the injustice many of these corporations are guilty of.
It is classic divide and conquer – with Americans at each other’s throats – oblivious to the common threat to their peace and prosperity literally right in front of them, consuming their paychecks every month, funneling it from mainstreet and into gargantuan concentrations of wealth and power on Wall Street.
When rebuilding begins – if it begins – it will be Americans paying through taxes, not Blackrock and others on Wall Street.
Despite the apparent chaos in America’s streets, these companies will continue to profit and their investors will continue accumulating wealth and power. America’s political landscape will continue to burn ensuring nothing of any significance can ever be built to change this basic fact.
How the Rest of the World Escaped American Hegemony
If you watch movies or listen to activists running wild in America’s streets – you’d probably be inclined to believe burning down your own community and endlessly complaining is how to throw off oppression – real or imagined.
In reality, the rest of the world has begun to move out from under the shadow of America’s global-spanning hegemony. They did it not by burning down their own nations or complaining endlessly to the United Nations – they did it by building superior alternatives to what the US offered the world.
China is a perfect example of a nation that offers industry and infrastructure as an alternative to America’s “investments,” overpriced weapons, and political meddling. China builds dams, railways, factories, and affordable weapons with no political strings attached.
Russia has provided nations around the globe with alternatives for everything from weapons and energy to political and economic alliances.
Individually, nations have begun creating alternatives to once unrivaled American monopolies. Huawei’s rise – first out from under Apple – then far above it – is a perfect example. Russia positioning itself as a key partner for Middle Eastern nations exhausted from America’s “stewardship” of the region is another.
Even in smaller nations the idea of creating alternatives to things like social media platforms monopolized by the US is taking hold – empowering these nations, keeping income local, and displacing America’s unwarranted influence within their borders.
America’s problem is that it has long since abandoned building and making things and instead has focused on coercion, exploitation, thievery, schemes, and moving numbers around on ledgers. This only works as long as no one else starts building and making things and as long as no one attempts to insulate themselves from financial trickery by creating alternative systems for investing in tangible progress.
This process – in fact – of doing just that has dominated the topic of geopolitics for years as America declines and lashes out and as nations patiently and systematically create these very sort of alternatives. Collectively it is called the “multipolar world order” and is one built on physical infrastructure like factories and railways – not spreadsheets and ticker symbols.
At Home: Build the Community You Want to Live in
Wall Street has no problem with “woke” activist burning down businesses across the country – even ones they own. They know whatever investments they have that are found to be “offensive” – they have 10 more that the “woke” community will continue paying into.
What Wall Street doesn’t want is for communities to boycott all of the businesses they own and creating local alternatives that keep wealth inside communities. The concentration of wealth on Wall Street and all the power and influence it buys would thus be spread more evenly across the country.
Fake socialism is offered as a solution – something Wall Street can keep in Washington close by and under their control – rather than any genuine distribution of wealth the people themselves control by actually owning businesses, land, and the means of production by building and operating local factories.
If money is power – asking or even demanding it from those who have it to give it back is not the answer. By no longer giving it to them willingly and instead keeping it in communities is the only way to redirect that money and its power to work for the people rather than Wall Street.
If Americans want a better society to live in – they are going to have to build it – not ask for it from those who have nothing to gain by giving it to them. Those who are burning instead of building, complaining instead of collaborating – are either deliberately attempting to obstruct real reform and progress in the US, or have fallen into traps laid by those who are.
Protesting has its place – particularly when used to protect what is being built. But as far as a medium for change in and of itself – history is devoid of a single example where blind violence and loud complaining alone changed anything of significance.
The “woke revolution” will most certainly not be any sort of exception. With many protesters citing things like the “French Revolution” – this is painfully clear. The French Revolution of course ended with one monarchy overthrown, and another – much larger one headed by Napoleon Bonaparte – taking its place.
To this day France remains controlled by immense corporate-financier interests which exist far above the superficial “democracy” and “protests” of the French people. The French military remains deployed in numerous “former” colonies in Africa where it seeks to reassert itself and the wider West alongside its allies on Wall Street and in Washington.
Clearly something of more substance needs to be done than committing to mindless mayhem in the streets and endless complaining across the media. If people want power, they need to possess the means to acquire it – money. To do so they need to stop handing their paychecks over to Wall Street and keep it in their communities. That is how China and Russia and the rest of the multipolar world has changed things globally and it is the only way things will change for Americans domestically.
Abroad: Now is the time to Judo-Throw America’s Hypocrisy
In Judo, the energy of an attacking enemy is turned against them – generally in the form of a spectacular throw.
For the rest of the world – now is a perfect time to capitalize on the wall-to-wall hypocrisy of a nation that has for decades lectured the world regarding “democracy,” “human rights,” and “free speech” while it now openly crushes all of the above at home.
Fronts funded by the US State Department via the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) operating overseas find themselves in the very unenviable position of taking money from a nation being exposed as chronically ill, systemically racist, divided, and increasingly violent.
How are these NED-funded fronts going to claim they are advancing “democracy” or “human rights” abroad for the US and thanks to generous US funding when democracy and human rights in the US is exposed as dysfunctional at best and nonexistent at worst?
Nations plagued by US meddling could easily make a case to sweep from within its borders fronts funded by a divided, racist, violent, and increasingly hypocritical US – that is – if foreign-funded subversion isn’t already a good enough reason to do so.
With US tech-firms hand-in-glove with the government purging thousands of accounts from platforms like Facebook and Twitter for allegedly being involved in “coordinated inauthentic behavior” it is an easy case to make that NED is the king of coordinated inauthentic behavior and should likewise be “purged.”
With all the energy the US has invested in meddling abroad – that energy has never been more vulnerable and likely to be thrown back against the US.
Empire’s End is Inevitable
But nations could just as easily patiently wait.
The US is an empire eating itself.
As long as the rest of the world remains determined to continue building better alternatives to America’s “international order” it will continue to displace American hegemony around the globe. Most nations desire greatly to work with the American people themselves – 99.999% of whom are likewise victims of Wall Street and Washington – whether they realize it or not. This helps explain the almost endless patience of nations like Russia and China in the face of daily provocations by the West.
For Americans, it is up to them regarding what kind of nation they will live in once the dust settles.
One where power and wealth is still very-much concentrated on Wall Street and the violence sown helps justify an even bigger police state than ever before? Or one in which Americans learn that no one in Washington, on TV, or with blue check marks next to their names on Twitter are on their side and start thinking and acting for themselves?
Only time will tell.
America: An Empire Eating Itself
Empire has one trick - divide and conquer. When it runs out of territory, nations, and people abroad to consume, it turns inward on itself.
The United States finds itself in a less-than-unique position of an empire in terminal decline. With nations around the globe standing up economically, militarily, and politically – closing off once lucrative avenues of exploitation – the US finds itself turning more and more inwardly upon its allies and even its own population – either to wring from it whatever wealth it can or at the very least – to prevent the displacement of America’s current ruling special interests by any sort of alternative.
Geopolitical expert and analyst F. William Engdahl did an impressive job pointing out how current turmoil in the United States is being driven not by grassroots efforts to confront these special interests but by these special interests themselves.
No matter what people thought they were going into the streets for – for a nation adept at engineering revolutions abroad – there is no way it won’t turn those same tools and techniques inward on unrest at home – ensuring it is channeled in the safest and most profitable way possible.
Cancel Culture’s Deliberate Futility: A Tale of Two Chain-Restaurants
To point out just how absurd America’s “woke revolution” and its opponents are, consider Domino’s Pizza and Shake Shack. Both find themselves the targets of opposite ends of America’s current turmoil. Domino’s for at one point in the distant past supporting people who now find themselves among US President Donald Trump’s administration, and Shake Shack for its anemic response to allegations its employees poisoned New York City police officers.
Those promising to boycott one and patronize the other to spite their political opponents never bothered to check who actually owns these two large food and beverage businesses. If they did – they’d see that the exact same handful of investment firms own both.
Investors at Blackrock, Vanguard, or State Street Global Advisors – who own significant shares and profit from both Shake Shack and Domino’s – don’t care which restaurant you boycott so long as you patronize another in their portfolio to spite your superficial political opponents. They are deliberately funding both sides of the turmoil to ensure that this is precisely how America’s “woke revolution” plays out.
Notice no one in the spotlight is saying “Wall Street.” Or saying “boycott them all.” Or pointing out that while poisoning cops or supporting President Trump seems “bad,” it pales vastly in the face of the injustice many of these corporations are guilty of.
It is classic divide and conquer – with Americans at each other’s throats – oblivious to the common threat to their peace and prosperity literally right in front of them, consuming their paychecks every month, funneling it from mainstreet and into gargantuan concentrations of wealth and power on Wall Street.
When rebuilding begins – if it begins – it will be Americans paying through taxes, not Blackrock and others on Wall Street.
Despite the apparent chaos in America’s streets, these companies will continue to profit and their investors will continue accumulating wealth and power. America’s political landscape will continue to burn ensuring nothing of any significance can ever be built to change this basic fact.
How the Rest of the World Escaped American Hegemony
If you watch movies or listen to activists running wild in America’s streets – you’d probably be inclined to believe burning down your own community and endlessly complaining is how to throw off oppression – real or imagined.
In reality, the rest of the world has begun to move out from under the shadow of America’s global-spanning hegemony. They did it not by burning down their own nations or complaining endlessly to the United Nations – they did it by building superior alternatives to what the US offered the world.
China is a perfect example of a nation that offers industry and infrastructure as an alternative to America’s “investments,” overpriced weapons, and political meddling. China builds dams, railways, factories, and affordable weapons with no political strings attached.
Russia has provided nations around the globe with alternatives for everything from weapons and energy to political and economic alliances.
Individually, nations have begun creating alternatives to once unrivaled American monopolies. Huawei’s rise – first out from under Apple – then far above it – is a perfect example. Russia positioning itself as a key partner for Middle Eastern nations exhausted from America’s “stewardship” of the region is another.
Even in smaller nations the idea of creating alternatives to things like social media platforms monopolized by the US is taking hold – empowering these nations, keeping income local, and displacing America’s unwarranted influence within their borders.
America’s problem is that it has long since abandoned building and making things and instead has focused on coercion, exploitation, thievery, schemes, and moving numbers around on ledgers. This only works as long as no one else starts building and making things and as long as no one attempts to insulate themselves from financial trickery by creating alternative systems for investing in tangible progress.
This process – in fact – of doing just that has dominated the topic of geopolitics for years as America declines and lashes out and as nations patiently and systematically create these very sort of alternatives. Collectively it is called the “multipolar world order” and is one built on physical infrastructure like factories and railways – not spreadsheets and ticker symbols.
At Home: Build the Community You Want to Live in
Wall Street has no problem with “woke” activist burning down businesses across the country – even ones they own. They know whatever investments they have that are found to be “offensive” – they have 10 more that the “woke” community will continue paying into.
What Wall Street doesn’t want is for communities to boycott all of the businesses they own and creating local alternatives that keep wealth inside communities. The concentration of wealth on Wall Street and all the power and influence it buys would thus be spread more evenly across the country.
Fake socialism is offered as a solution – something Wall Street can keep in Washington close by and under their control – rather than any genuine distribution of wealth the people themselves control by actually owning businesses, land, and the means of production by building and operating local factories.
If money is power – asking or even demanding it from those who have it to give it back is not the answer. By no longer giving it to them willingly and instead keeping it in communities is the only way to redirect that money and its power to work for the people rather than Wall Street.
If Americans want a better society to live in – they are going to have to build it – not ask for it from those who have nothing to gain by giving it to them. Those who are burning instead of building, complaining instead of collaborating – are either deliberately attempting to obstruct real reform and progress in the US, or have fallen into traps laid by those who are.
Protesting has its place – particularly when used to protect what is being built. But as far as a medium for change in and of itself – history is devoid of a single example where blind violence and loud complaining alone changed anything of significance.
The “woke revolution” will most certainly not be any sort of exception. With many protesters citing things like the “French Revolution” – this is painfully clear. The French Revolution of course ended with one monarchy overthrown, and another – much larger one headed by Napoleon Bonaparte – taking its place.
To this day France remains controlled by immense corporate-financier interests which exist far above the superficial “democracy” and “protests” of the French people. The French military remains deployed in numerous “former” colonies in Africa where it seeks to reassert itself and the wider West alongside its allies on Wall Street and in Washington.
Clearly something of more substance needs to be done than committing to mindless mayhem in the streets and endless complaining across the media. If people want power, they need to possess the means to acquire it – money. To do so they need to stop handing their paychecks over to Wall Street and keep it in their communities. That is how China and Russia and the rest of the multipolar world has changed things globally and it is the only way things will change for Americans domestically.
Abroad: Now is the time to Judo-Throw America’s Hypocrisy
In Judo, the energy of an attacking enemy is turned against them – generally in the form of a spectacular throw.
For the rest of the world – now is a perfect time to capitalize on the wall-to-wall hypocrisy of a nation that has for decades lectured the world regarding “democracy,” “human rights,” and “free speech” while it now openly crushes all of the above at home.
Fronts funded by the US State Department via the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) operating overseas find themselves in the very unenviable position of taking money from a nation being exposed as chronically ill, systemically racist, divided, and increasingly violent.
How are these NED-funded fronts going to claim they are advancing “democracy” or “human rights” abroad for the US and thanks to generous US funding when democracy and human rights in the US is exposed as dysfunctional at best and nonexistent at worst?
Nations plagued by US meddling could easily make a case to sweep from within its borders fronts funded by a divided, racist, violent, and increasingly hypocritical US – that is – if foreign-funded subversion isn’t already a good enough reason to do so.
With US tech-firms hand-in-glove with the government purging thousands of accounts from platforms like Facebook and Twitter for allegedly being involved in “coordinated inauthentic behavior” it is an easy case to make that NED is the king of coordinated inauthentic behavior and should likewise be “purged.”
With all the energy the US has invested in meddling abroad – that energy has never been more vulnerable and likely to be thrown back against the US.
Empire’s End is Inevitable
But nations could just as easily patiently wait.
The US is an empire eating itself.
As long as the rest of the world remains determined to continue building better alternatives to America’s “international order” it will continue to displace American hegemony around the globe. Most nations desire greatly to work with the American people themselves – 99.999% of whom are likewise victims of Wall Street and Washington – whether they realize it or not. This helps explain the almost endless patience of nations like Russia and China in the face of daily provocations by the West.
For Americans, it is up to them regarding what kind of nation they will live in once the dust settles.
One where power and wealth is still very-much concentrated on Wall Street and the violence sown helps justify an even bigger police state than ever before? Or one in which Americans learn that no one in Washington, on TV, or with blue check marks next to their names on Twitter are on their side and start thinking and acting for themselves?
Only time will tell.
Thursday, June 18, 2020
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https://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/manipulating-the-masses-edward-bernays-why-the-system-needs-your-compliance_06142020
Manipulating The Masses: Edward Bernays & Why The System Needs Your Compliance
You are being controlled. You are being manipulated. You are being brainwashed. If you are still stuck believing that your vote counts and choosing sides is “moral” in a system set up against you from day one, the propaganda has worked.
In this video, we look at the ideas of Edward Bernays, nephew of Sigmund Freud, and a pioneering mind behind the field of public relations and modern propaganda – particularly his ideas on how group psychology, and the illusion of choice, can be used to manipulate the masses.
This is all about dividing and conquering. While we argue about which political puppet is less evil than the other, they wreak havoc on us and destroy everything in their path for power, fame, and wealth.
If you want to make the best change, reject the system, the entire system, and refuse to vote. The task of any control system, therefore, is to maintain the facade of political choice and central to this is “the people’s right to vote,” writes Ben O’Hanlon for Medium.
The easiest way to divide people is through political theater. This is going to be a tough red pill for people to swallow…
It literally doesn’t matter who you vote for. If your vote actually mattered, it would have already been made illegal.
“Let us control the money of a nation, and we care not who makes its laws.” – A “maxim” of the House of Rothschilds.
This isn’t an astonishing or groundbreaking statement. On some visceral level, we all understand this. So why then, is it so easy to divide people into political groups so a small handful of other people can rule over them? Basically, propaganda – the illusion of choice keeps people stuck believing they are free to decide when it really doesn’t matter much anyway. You don’t get to vote for the people behind the scenes that make all the decisions anyway, only the puppet whose face will be attached to those decisions.
Voting provides a corrupt system with legitimacy, regardless of who you vote for. It implies that you consent to the outcome because you participated even if you wanted the other guy to win. The use of dividing people into political parties is not new, but the desire to break free from them and the ruling class. in general, is.
There is something being concocted in the dens of power, far beyond the public eye, and it doesn’t bode well for the future of this country.
Anytime you have an entire nation so mesmerized by political theater and public spectacle that they are oblivious to all else, you’d better beware. –John W. Whitehead
Voting is nothing more than an illusion of choice. It’s akin to slave putting a piece of paper in a box that asks the master to be free. It doesn’t work that way. Figure out the difference between right and wrong, and one of the first things that happen is a refusal to vote for the lesser of two evils…which is still evil, by the way. Because any master who thinks they own anyone else is evil and all politicians think they own you to some degree.
Besides, how do you know who won? The mainstream media tells you, right? And they are so honest, just, and trustworthy, and would NEVER do what they are told…oh, wait. Yeah, it’s that insane.
Americans Are Too “Idiotic To See How Enslaved They Are” Even As the Gates of Hell Open Up
Trump bent immediately to the will of the deep state. Like a twig in the wind.
It’s time to be honest about that. The people never had a champion in the ring.
Let us talk no more of “democracy,” or of “voting”. Of course, that is hard to accept and acknowledge, because it is so devastating to the delusions that hold individuals together from day to day.
Many people may not even be capable of holding the thought or notion that they might oppose or stop it. Most Americans are now literally numb to the actions of its own government, the lives it is destroying and the lies it is working for.
The candidates and the creatures of the state who have willingly lied and deceived the people while looking them in the eye (and pretending to have good reasons) are recklessly and wantonly jeopardizing the world in a way that that hasn’t been seen since the cold war. –SHTFPlan, April 13, 2017
“None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
If you are being honest with yourself, you would surely know by now that you don’t require a ruler, a master, or an authoritarian to make decisions for you. It’s time we begin to own ourselves and reject the power-hungry politicians will to rule over us all. People seem to be getting increasingly angry at those who are trying to wake them up and free them from the mental chains they’ve put on themselves. I see this as a sign that the system’s propaganda has worked, but only on those easy to control from the start.
Manipulating The Masses: Edward Bernays & Why The System Needs Your Compliance
You are being controlled. You are being manipulated. You are being brainwashed. If you are still stuck believing that your vote counts and choosing sides is “moral” in a system set up against you from day one, the propaganda has worked.
In this video, we look at the ideas of Edward Bernays, nephew of Sigmund Freud, and a pioneering mind behind the field of public relations and modern propaganda – particularly his ideas on how group psychology, and the illusion of choice, can be used to manipulate the masses.
This is all about dividing and conquering. While we argue about which political puppet is less evil than the other, they wreak havoc on us and destroy everything in their path for power, fame, and wealth.
If you want to make the best change, reject the system, the entire system, and refuse to vote. The task of any control system, therefore, is to maintain the facade of political choice and central to this is “the people’s right to vote,” writes Ben O’Hanlon for Medium.
The easiest way to divide people is through political theater. This is going to be a tough red pill for people to swallow…
It literally doesn’t matter who you vote for. If your vote actually mattered, it would have already been made illegal.
“Let us control the money of a nation, and we care not who makes its laws.” – A “maxim” of the House of Rothschilds.
This isn’t an astonishing or groundbreaking statement. On some visceral level, we all understand this. So why then, is it so easy to divide people into political groups so a small handful of other people can rule over them? Basically, propaganda – the illusion of choice keeps people stuck believing they are free to decide when it really doesn’t matter much anyway. You don’t get to vote for the people behind the scenes that make all the decisions anyway, only the puppet whose face will be attached to those decisions.
Voting provides a corrupt system with legitimacy, regardless of who you vote for. It implies that you consent to the outcome because you participated even if you wanted the other guy to win. The use of dividing people into political parties is not new, but the desire to break free from them and the ruling class. in general, is.
There is something being concocted in the dens of power, far beyond the public eye, and it doesn’t bode well for the future of this country.
Anytime you have an entire nation so mesmerized by political theater and public spectacle that they are oblivious to all else, you’d better beware. –John W. Whitehead
Voting is nothing more than an illusion of choice. It’s akin to slave putting a piece of paper in a box that asks the master to be free. It doesn’t work that way. Figure out the difference between right and wrong, and one of the first things that happen is a refusal to vote for the lesser of two evils…which is still evil, by the way. Because any master who thinks they own anyone else is evil and all politicians think they own you to some degree.
Besides, how do you know who won? The mainstream media tells you, right? And they are so honest, just, and trustworthy, and would NEVER do what they are told…oh, wait. Yeah, it’s that insane.
Americans Are Too “Idiotic To See How Enslaved They Are” Even As the Gates of Hell Open Up
Trump bent immediately to the will of the deep state. Like a twig in the wind.
It’s time to be honest about that. The people never had a champion in the ring.
Let us talk no more of “democracy,” or of “voting”. Of course, that is hard to accept and acknowledge, because it is so devastating to the delusions that hold individuals together from day to day.
Many people may not even be capable of holding the thought or notion that they might oppose or stop it. Most Americans are now literally numb to the actions of its own government, the lives it is destroying and the lies it is working for.
The candidates and the creatures of the state who have willingly lied and deceived the people while looking them in the eye (and pretending to have good reasons) are recklessly and wantonly jeopardizing the world in a way that that hasn’t been seen since the cold war. –SHTFPlan, April 13, 2017
“None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
If you are being honest with yourself, you would surely know by now that you don’t require a ruler, a master, or an authoritarian to make decisions for you. It’s time we begin to own ourselves and reject the power-hungry politicians will to rule over us all. People seem to be getting increasingly angry at those who are trying to wake them up and free them from the mental chains they’ve put on themselves. I see this as a sign that the system’s propaganda has worked, but only on those easy to control from the start.
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