Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Economic pressures

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • 2 parasites for one producer

    The parasitic class, lacking ability and motivation to be productive, must subsist on whatever it can steal from the productive class. This is done in a straightforward manner by corrupting the money supply. The prime mechanism for this is, the Central Bank. The CB is utilized to extract value from the currency for the benefit of the bankers.
    The parasites, obviously, must retain control over the producers. Endless laws and endless taxation. There are limits to this. Parkinson's Law states that GOV grows by 6%, no matter the workload they carry.

    "As Parkinson observed, "the number of the officials and the quantity of the work are not related to each other at all." In his case, Parkinson witnessed the non-relationship up close through studies of the Royal Navy's bureaucracy.

    While the Royal Navy could in 1914 claim 146,000 officers and men served by 3,249 dockyard officials and clerks, plus 57,000 dockyard workmen, by 1928 there were only 100,000 officers and men, yet the number of dockyard officials and clerks had risen to 4,558. This, despite the fact that the number of British warships had declined from 62 to 20.

    Parkinson went on to point that over the same period, the number of Admiralty officials had risen from 2,000 to 3,569. The British Navy had shrunk by 1/3rd in terms of men, and 2/3rds in terms of ships, thus forcing Parkinson to conclude that the growth in the number of workers for the Royal Navy "was unrelated to any possible increase in their work."

    Parkinson went on to lay out what he deemed two "motive forces" for the increase of bureaucracy alongside reduced work output. As he put it, "An official wants to multiply subordinates, not rivals," and secondly, "Officials make work for each other." If an official feels overworked, whether true or not, there's little incentive to hire someone of similar stature, nor is there incentive to hire just one subordinate. Indeed, if the senior official were simply to hire one subordinate, doing so would effectively make the hire similar in stature to the individual who hired him.
    The greater incentive is to hire two subordinates, separate the work assigned to each, and in doing so, make both hires less worthy of becoming rivals of the senior official.
    |https://www.realclearmarkets.com/art...ing_98934.html

    The increase was mostly seen in bureaucrats, NOT productive workers. The bureaucratic overlay of the EU behemoth reduced the GDP of Europe by 20% and, greatly lowered the living standard of the actual workers.
    Parkinson points out that there was a decline in dockworkers BUT, a rise in clerks and Admiralty officers.
    This brings up a new topic. As a bureaucracy grows, it lowers the standard of living for those who actually do the work. BUT, those workers have their own personal needs and desires. This pits them against the multitudinous blobs in the blob State. The producers work ever-harder to support an ever-growing parasite.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1aKSIaTeIM&t=142s


    Part of the reason for the constant failure of socialism is; it's disregard for the workers desires. This disregard is not without cost. As the poverty, grumblings and protests of the producers increase, the blob state must tighten control. The best example is today in China. Their "social credit" system monitors EVERYTHING . It then hands out "carrots" and "sticks". Socialism destroys motivation. It remains to be seen of Chinese communism system can overcome this impediment.

    American government has handed out lots of carrots. It has attracted and, retained LOTS of court sycophants. True to the findings of Parkinson, they make work for each other. Of the 22 million GOV employees, about 6500 of them do one half the work.
    For every additional $1 in taxes, the productive economy is reduced by $3. The credit bubble is forced to grow to supply additional liquidity to make up for the funds sucked out by the parasites. Printing is now replacing taxes.

    So much from State parasites. What about the other main group of parasites?
    The bankers use an entirely different tack. Rather that using direct taxes, they use the "inflation tax". Here too, the printing must never stop.
    We are coming to the end of the line. If State must pump in $7 trillion into the banks in just 7? weeks, we are coming to the end of the line. One can easily assume that Armstrong is correct and, sovereign debt is going to blow up.

    Comment


    • Reflation trade in danger

      Here's Why The Reflation Trade Is Doomed And Will Die Some Time Around April
      https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/he...e-around-april
      It is an interesting article. It notes that the reflation trade can not take off if China does not supply more and more credit.
      "In other words, without a Chinese pillar of support, without validation from CTAs, and with the Fed's "NOT QE" set to end in April, the reflation trade is nothing more than another Fed-created headfake, and has at most another 4 months before financial gravity, and a record $255 trillion in global debt, unleash the deflation trade."

      Armstrong, "Even if the Democrats were able to remove Trump by all of these shenanigans, he would refuse to leave the office and the entire thing would go to the Supreme Court who would overrule the entire process. I have never seen just such a wholesale denial of everything the Constitution stood for. The government is totally collapsing".

      Here is a very long winded examination of the relation between gold and freedom down through history.
      https://www.aier.org/gold-and-liberty/

      12/22 Market melts up as Fed turns on the liquidity firehose – Real Investment Advice
      12/22 Most Americans lack savings – Statista


      China Faces "Systemic Risk" From Debt Cross-Default "Chain Reaction", Top Central Bank Advisor Warns
      China tried to dismount from the debt tiger by reducing new debt creation. BUT, China has $1 trillion a year in capital flight.
      Aramco Slips For Fourth Day After Losing $2 Trillion Dollar Valuation
      THAT is going to leave a mark.
      Steven Mnuchin Explains Why $1.5 Trillion In $100 Bills Have Disappeared
      I sure as hell didn't get any of them.

      As The Fiscal Doomsday Machine Powers On, David Stockman Rages "Impeach The Congress, Too!"
      The coming social breakdown.
      https://ghionjournal.com/america-wil...-in-the-2020s/
      This guy is more pessimistic than Kunstler.
      https://www.strategic-culture.org/ne...-really-means/

      California homelessness 'at crisis level'with uptick of 16.4% this year
      I see an increase from week to week.
      California population growth slowest since 1900 as 700,000 residents leave In 2019
      China's biggest freshwater lake dries up
      China is stealing water as fast as it can build dams and pipes but, they are losing ground.

      Comment


      • Vids

        Germany going down.
        👉Brexit , Deutschbank Collapse & The German Economy Slowdown will bring the EU Implosion
        MARTIN ARMSTRONG - The Next Great Economic Collapse Will Begin by the Collapse of European Banks
        I can't leave out the humor.
        Jim Cramer: Housing data shows we've 'finally, finally, finally recovered' from the Great Recession
        6 Mega Banks Which May "Bail You In" | G20 Bank Bail-In Laws
        Ron Paul, Central Banking Is On The Ropes: Gold Will Survive & The Fed Will End
        Katy Bar The Door! -- The Fed's Inflation Is Coming!
        Keiser Report: Prepping for Mad Max? (E1472)

        Comment


        • Gold vs cash

          The articles on gold are getting more interesting.
          "As we approach the end of 2019, gold is on track for a healthy yearly gain. To date, the yellow metal is up over 16% on the year."
          The U.S. dollar is compared to a basket of currencies as an indicator of it's relative value. The whole basket is going down so, the dollar looks good. Gold is up 16%against the dollar. Gold is just gold. It is the dollar that is down 16%.
          "Roosevelt signed Executive Order 6102. It was touted as a measure to stop hoarding, but was, in reality, a massive confiscation scheme. The order required private citizens, partnerships, associations and corporations to turn in all but small amounts of gold to the Federal Reserve"

          "The reason behind Roosevelt’s executive order and the congressional joint resolution was to remove constraints on inflating the money supply. The Federal Reserve Act required all Federal Reserve notes have 40% gold backing. But the Fed was low on gold and up against the limit. By increasing its gold stores through the confiscation of private gold holdings, and declaring a higher exchange rate, the Fed could circulate more notes."

          "Looking at it another way, the purchasing power of gold has increased dramatically since Nixon closed the gold window. When Nixon made his announcement, gold was official $35 an ounce, but the actual market price was around $45 per ounce. If you take the recent price which has been hovering between $1,450 and $1,500 per ounce, the price has increased by 3122%."
          "his allows the Fed to print as many dollars as it pleases. And—without the discipline imposed by some form of a gold standard—it does precisely that. The U.S money supply has exploded 2,106 percent higher since 1971. "
          https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/tr...rice-gold-1971
          Interesting, you turned in your gold to the FED, NOT to the treasury.

          "Among wealthy investors however, a UBS survey published around the same time as the BoA prognosis found a much different temperament. The survey polling over 3,400 investors in 13 markets discovered these high-net-worth individuals are holding 25% of their portfolios in cash,"
          "The dollar has lost 98.2% of its purchasing power since 1900, while gold has become almost 54 times more valuable."
          It is the parasites that want an infinitely expandable currency, not the producers.

          "As central banks print up to $100 billion per month to smooth volatility and goose economic growth, an equivalent amount in hard currency and precious metals is “disappearing”.

          According to the Wall Street Journal, Banks are issuing more notes than ever and yet they seem to be disappearing off the face of the earth. Central banks don’t know where they have gone, or why, and are playing detective, trying to crack the same mystery."
          This tells you the relative value of currency versus bonds. Bonds are a debt note. Bills are NOT. True, we have debt money but, it is doubtful that GOV will cancel the currency. It is explained that Modi was advised / forced to cancel the large Rupee note as an experiment to show the West just what would happen.

          "Goldman Sachs recently noted that 2019 is looking to break another record for central bank gold purchases - an estimated 750 tons - beating the record 651 tons accumulated last year. According to the World Council, 2018’s central bank gold haul was 74% more than 2017 and the highest amount since the gold standard ended in 1971. "
          "Goldman also discovered, over the past three years, 1,200 tons of gold flows worth $57 billion that mysteriously disappeared from the official record. "
          "In those years, all asset classes except cash and Treasury bills bled red ink. Treasuries gained a respective 10.3% and 5.2%, while cash showed a more modest 1.6% and 1.4% uptick. "
          So, what happens to gold when sovereign debt collapses?

          "The US national debt, that is, the amount of debt held by the federal government, recently surpassed $23 trillion, having jumped $1.3 trillion in the 12 months leading up to November."
          "If the growth of the federal debt outruns the economy during these fabulously good times, what will the debt do when the recession hits? When government tax receipts plunge and government expenditures for unemployment and the like soar? The federal debt will jump by $2.5 trillion or more in a 12-month period."
          "This can't go on forever. It’s not a stretch to envision a scenario whereby the world’s reserve currency, the US dollar, collapses under the weight of unmanageable debt, triggered say, by a mass offloading of US Treasuries by foreign countries, that currently own about $6 trillion of US debt."
          OK. they offload treasuries and buy WHAT ? It has been continuously stated that no other market could absorb the $6 trillion. It certainly won't flow into the Eurozone bonds or currency. It won't flow into a horrendously over-priced stock market. It won't flow into corporate bonds that are nothing but a powder keg.

          "According to the IMF, nearly 40% of the corporate debt of major economies including the US, China, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Spain is at risk of default in the event of another global economic downturn.
          In China, corporate bond debt defaults this year have surged almost 10 times 2014levels."

          "Total credit card debt surpassed $1 trillion, with the average American holding a balance of $4,923. "
          "interest rate on credit cards has risen from 15.11% in 2017 to a current average of 21.4%. That is despite the US Federal Reserve lowering interest rates three times since August. "
          You didn't expect the banks to pass on the beneficial interest rates,,, did you?
          "The Plains Indians had an innovative way of hunting buffalo - find a very steep cliff and drive the poor, hapless creatures over it. This is quite a good analogy for the current, dangerously over-leveraged situation many developed economies find themselves in. Here the hunters are the governments and the buffalo running to their deaths are their gullible populations who have drunk the cool-aid of a consumptive lifestyle financed by endless debt. "
          https://aheadoftheherd.com/Newslette...n-a-crisis.htm

          Comment


          • Prelude to the meltdown

            China To Cut Tariffs On Pork, Tech And Many Global Imports It Desperately Needs
            Command economies always mis-allocate resources.
            Meltup Accelerates Into Christmas Break As Algos Run Wild In Illiquid Markets
            "With humans gone skiing, the algos are in charge and the year-end meltup continues."
            "Inflation Is Inevitably Going To Rise" - Is Alan Greenspan Right?
            "...we simply cannot make a case for structurally higher inflation either in 2020 or the following several years.""
            This is a conundrum. Prices WILL rise. But, the consumer is debt saturated and, wage starved. Prices will go up and, people will cut back even further to essentials. Prices will fall on non-essentials until those businesses lack the profit margin to stay alive.
            In 2018: 37.2 million people lived in food-insecure households. 9.5 million adults lived in households with very low food security. 6.0 million children lived in food-insecure households in which children, along with adults, were food insecure.Sep 4, 2019
            The rich can downshift. The poor are in trouble.

            US Durables Goods Orders Unexpectedly Plunge In November As Boeing Backlash Hits
            Boeing hired $7 an hour Indian engineers to cut costs,,,,, and, pay higher stock dividends. The structural problems in the airframes are beyond fixing.
            Muilenburg Fired As Boeing CEO
            "This was the decision of the board... He was fired."

            Repo Crisis Fades Away With Second "Undersubscribed" Turn Repo Even As Pozsar Doubles Down On Doomsday
            "Now we’re getting into a point in the year when balance-sheet problems are going to flare up, and I think the system will get gummed up again." - Zoltan Pozsar"
            January is going to bring a whole new set of problems.
            Clinton Impeachment 'Judge': Trump Impeachment Is "Phony"
            “There is an abuse of House power; It is wrong constitutionally.”
            It remains to be seen just how much impeachment affects the markets.

            Armstrong claims that GOV is hunting EVERY dollar so that nobody moves cash unrecorded.
            https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/w...-is-too-small/
            I have another viewpoint. I believe that Trump is trying to choke off cash transactions as part of his wholesale attack on organized crime.

            Another good article. Schools do NOT teach creativity.
            https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/a...llege-degrees/

            Comment


            • Infighting,,, repocalypse two

              Armstrong, "It appears that the Democrats have joined hands with the Intelligence community to actually overthrow Trump. CNN has joined this conspiracy and is claiming now to be tracking the lies of Trump without documentation to support their headlines. Why has the country come to this? Clearly, this is an all out coup and at the expense of dividing the country so profoundly, it is not hard to see how and why the United States will now separate and we may not even last until 2032. Even if they succeed in overthrowing Trump, the Republicans will do the same to any Democrat. Government has ceased to function – this is now just a grudge match.
              The Democrats know that the socialist system is collapsing. They can smell it in the air. "
              The CIA is just a subsidiary of MOSSAD.
              https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/i...rthrown-trump/

              "The more I talk to sources, the more I begin to see that the computer will be correct again, which I have tried personally to fight against. It is the reason I wrote this book on Manipulating the World Economy in hopes of perhaps changing the system."
              His book sold out in 3 hours at Amazon. I just think that it is too late.

              "Trump should win and the Democrats will eventually split themselves. However, he may not be in office after 2022. The computer is showing some sort of shift at that time, which raises concern about a staged assassination or a faked death by heart attack. "
              "This toxic political state of the United States is going to get far worse. The Democrats are simply fueling hatred and dividing the country for what seems to be just revenge for their own failures in economic policy. There is no winner here. "
              "There have been hundreds of millions of people who have been killed fighting against Marxism. All the wars combined starting with World War I have resulted in a tiny fraction of deaths compared to the war against Marxism (i.e., China, Russia, South America). Not even religion stacks up against the war against Marxism for causing the number of deaths."

              Armstrong, "I am a middle-class European guy, with no investment, only a bit of money on the bank. I read your post about currency cancelling in 2021 and got really scared."
              NOBODY sent me a memo on currency cancelling.
              "ANSWER: Now that the British election took place and the Conservatives won a majority, it is safe to say that the UK will leave the EU. So there should be no problem with the British banks getting caught up in the overall banking crisis in the EU. The Bank of England is independent of the ECB and will act accordingly to the domestic economy. The issue is inside the Eurozone."
              https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/w...-the-eurozone/

              Missing cash, "The puzzle is especially perplexing since societies and companies are going cashless, given the boom in payments by cards and cellphone apps. The value of U.S. dollars in circulation hit about $1.7 trillion last year…"
              "The Hoarding Dollars Report which was for WEC attendees will be available from January 1st for everyone. There are those in the media who are starting to notice the hoarding, but still remain clueless as to why and the future implications. "
              https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/u...hoarding-cash/

              "What developed into the worst December in US stock-market history culminated in an extraordinary repo interest spike at the end of the year, which I claimed happened because the Fed’s tightening had already pulled bank reserves down below the depth the Fed’s new fake recovery, as fragile as a Christmas ornament, could withstand. I showed with graphs how the Fed’s tightening was resulting in bank reserves depleting everywhere to a degree that proportionately matched the Fed’s tightening."

              "In other words, the Fed has maintained that its massive rescue attempts from the Repo Crisis are “not QE"
              " It’s a baloney claim because the Fed indefinitely rolls those over, but it’s a claim that Wall Street and politicians have readily accepted."
              "Pozsar wrote that approach is exactly why the Fed’s actions aren’t resolving the repo crisis"
              "The banks are mostly out of short-term treasuries to exchange in repo actions and stuffed with longterm ones the Fed is not offering to buy in its own repo operations. "
              So, the FED is forcing investors to hold on to long-term treasuries.
              Repocalypse: The Second Coming - The Great Recession Blog

              The banks count on investors having a short-term memory.
              https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/in...ns-past-decade

              "The prices free markets generate aggregate and convey important information about what, how, where, when, and for whom to produce. As the economist Tim Harford put it in his book The Undercover Economist, competitive markets create a world of truth: he notes that in a competitive market, we produce the right stuff the right way for the right people and in the right proportions. The properties of competitive equilibrium have a certain beauty to them. We produce everything that is worth more than it costs to produce. We produce nothing that is worth less than it costs to produce. What gets produced is produced by the lowest-cost producers and consumed by the highest-value consumers. It’s an undesigned and unappreciated marvel."
              https://www.aier.org/article/how-eve...ry-summarized/
              Neither the banks nor, the government want honesty in markets.

              The Market Has Priced In The Fastest Economic Recovery Since The Financial Crisis

              Comment


              • Constantly failing defences

                With the invention of gunpowder, all previous defense strategies had to be tossed out. The same thing happened when aircraft were introduced to the battlefield. When the ironclads (Merrimac & Monitor) fought it out, an observer from the British Admiralty reported back to London that their entire Navy was obsolete. Cannons were heavy and hard to transport. Cannons gradually gave way to rockets which were lighter and easier to transport. They had much greater range. Once again, a host of defense strategies became useless.
                With each advance in destructive power, it became increasingly difficult to protect the soft, squishy humans.
                Humans were always trying to gain the high ground in battles for supremacy. The competition for speed, reach and, lethality just grew faster and faster. This competition reached a high point with thermonuclear weapons. Since there was no defence against them, they weren't used. This was pretty much a stalemate with one exception.
                A neutron bomb was detonated at Baghdad Airport in 2003, page 1 ...
                AboveTopSecret.com - Conspiracy Theories, UFOs, Paranormal, Politcs, and other "alternative topics" - home page for Thursday, December 26, 2019 › forum › thread597957


                As we learned about nuclear winter, the use of thermonuclear weapons was more strongly avoided. That didn't mean that space based weapons were completely unused.
                China Tianjin Explosion Was Caused By Pentagon 'Rod Of God'
                The Secret Tungsten Weapon Led To the Tianjin Explosion in


                Meanwhile, the development of rockets advanced continuously. Here is an excellent article about the current state of rocket development in Russia.
                https://consortiumnews.com/2019/12/2...an-revolution/

                In 1985, Armstrong's program, Socrates predicted that there would be a huge turning in the confidence model on 2015.75,,, 30 years later.
                On that same day, Russia went into Syria and proved that it could stand up to the American military. In a later incident with the ship, Donald Cook, Russia proved that it had electronic defense & offence capabilities that the West could NOT match.
                This development continues.
                Russia developing air defense systems based on new physical principles
                https://tass.com/defense/1103381
                The American defence industry paid lip service to achieving military superiority. Their main objective was to create cost over runs and, more profit. The Russians were fighting for survival after the U.S.S.R. fell. In spite of promises to the contrary, they knew that Pox Americana would eventually try to over run the motherland.

                Brer rabbit was asked how he manage to outrun the bear. The rabbit replied, "the bear is running for his diner. I'm running for my life.

                Just as wooden ships were made obsolete by the ironclads, most of today's navies are nothing more than big, easy targets. The most potent naval force is the carrier group with all it's assorted protective ships.
                In 2006, a Chinese Song-class submarine surfaced within five miles of the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk, apparently without being detected. ... The outer hull of each sub is coated in rubber squares

                Modern warfare is now a contest of who has the best missiles. In Iran's case, it is also a question of who has the most missiles.

                "WASHINGTON – The Department of Defense has sent a plan to the White House that would cut the construction of more than 40 percent of its planed Flight III Arleigh Burke destroyers in in fiscal years 2021 through 2025. The memo also outlined plans to accelerate the decommissioning cruisers, cutting the total number of Ticonderoga-class cruisers in the fleet down to nine by 2025, from a planned 13 in last year’s budget.

                The Pentagon’s plan would actually shrink the size of the fleet from today’s fleet of 293 ships to 287 ships, the memo said, which stands in contrast to the Navy’s goal of 355 ships. The 355 ship goal was also made national policy in the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act."

                The Navy and MIC want 355 big, useless targets.
                WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The Department of Defence contemplates scaling down or completely withdrawing US troops from West Africa as the first phase of US reallocating its forces to address the great power competition with China and Russia, the New York Times reported on Tuesday.
                You can bet that the MIC will fight any cutback in approbations for big hardware.

                Various States also have torpedoes that can be launched from long distance and; detonate off-shore and cause a huge wave to hit coastal cities.
                Just as drones have replaced manned aircraft, the computer is moving into the battlefield.
                12/25 The cyberwar decade: how an invisible battlefield came of age in the 2010s – PM
                12/15 Royal Navy to hold biggest cyber war games – Stock Daily Dish
                12/15 NATO unveils new tech to take on ‘Putin in cyber war‘ – Livingston


                Since there is no way to protect squishy humans from advanced rocketry, there is a lot more incentive to avoid war. Pox Americana wants to bring it's existing space force out into the open to once again gain the high ground. Once again, we have reached a scenario where nothing can be defended or protected from war.

                Comment


                • Economic pressure and failing socialism

                  ALL democracies eventually fail. The average life is 150 years. When people learn that they can vote for a living instead of working, it all goes bust. When politicians learn that they can buy votes with freebies, that is what they do.
                  Parkinson's Law shows us why and how bureaucracies continuously grow regardless of the work load. Politicians are motivated to hire more and more people who will automatically vote to increase the tax burden. Nothing new about all of this.
                  The blob State just grows endlessly.
                  https://www.zerohedge.com/political/...ayers-nearly-1

                  Because of advanced weaponry and advancing economic clout, America is sliding out of first place in global influence. America has always resisted the reach and authority of the International Criminal Court. With our NUMEROUS war criminals, that is easy to understand. Times are changing. America and the mother country are starting to get worried about investigation from the ICC.
                  https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2019/...dan-Valley-ICC

                  The Hidden Powers Behind the Destruction of America
                  The Khazarian Mafia Takes Complete
                  Control of the United States of America
                  http://themillenniumreport.com/2019/...on-of-america/
                  Israel's Military Chief Outlines Strategy For "Coming War" With Iran & Its Allies
                  Trump is trying to fight the good fight. It remains to be seen how successful he / we are.
                  Putin is his ally and, that is really pissing off organized crime.

                  12/26 The spread between CCC, BB is ‘canary in coal mine’ – Rosenberg
                  When there is a downgrade, all the institutions must unload paper that is NOT investment grade.
                  12/26 Guggenheim’s Minerd warns of ‘Minsky moment’ that could “reset” asset prices – ZH
                  12/26 Global stock markets gained $17 trillion in value in 2019 – CNBC

                  John Hussman shows that history indicates a <60%> loss.
                  12/26 The world is on fire; 2020 will see major market turbulence – Kitco
                  Turbulence, huh?
                  What is red & green and, goes 60 mph???? Kermit the frog in a blender

                  12/25 The Fed gets blindsided… again – Daily Reckoning
                  They know what is happening. No president wanted to chair a falling economy so, the FED was tasked with making the economy good
                  .12/24 Here’s how the market has changed since the panic last December – CNBC
                  12/24 Repocalypse: the second coming – Great Recession
                  12/24 Today France, tomorrow the USA? – Pat Buchanan

                  51% of Americans receive a check from GOV. Just imagine what happens when GOV is proven to be insolvent.
                  12/25 Japan to dump radioactive waste into Pacific as storage space dwindles – ZH
                  Eagle Research has clearly shown how the water can be made non-radioactive by burning it in a HHO.

                  12/26 Japan shrinks by 500,000 people as births fall to lowest number since 1874 – NY Times
                  Some day, in the far future, they will figure it out.
                  The real effects of bank bailouts: Evidence from Japan - Vox EU
                  The Pacific : Japan Special Bank to Rescue Credit Firms ...
                  Saving the Sun: A Wall Street Gamble to Rescue Japan from it's trillion dollar meltdown
                  Power Without Purpose: The Crisis of Japan's Global banks
                  Let Japan's zombie firms die | The Japan Times



                  Japan's rising child poverty exposes true cost of two decades of economic decline
                  Soup kitchens have sprung up to provide meals for some of the estimated 3.5 million children officially living in poverty in one of world’s richest countries

                  ZH, Colleges Track Hundreds Of Thousands Of Students Using Their Phones
                  "6,000 location data points per student every day..."

                  ZH, Large, Non-Government Drones Flying In Mysterious Grid Pattern Over Colorado

                  "They’ve been doing a grid search, a grid pattern ... They fly one square and then they fly another square."

                  That's very reassuring.
                  Capital Flight: Money Leaving China At Record Rate

                  China is fighting "abnormal" cash flows. It's not surprising in the least...

                  MAYBE, they should have paid attention to what they were doing to destroy confidence.

                  Armstrong; the history of climate scares and the collapse of socialism.
                  "Macron of France is pushing hard to Federalize Europe because he knows full well that France cannot maintain the level of social benefits and still keep its spending in line with the European treaty. His agenda is to federalize Europe and use climate change as a cover for the failing socialism he faces. By pushing France to surrender its total sovereignty to Brussels, the cuts to French benefits will then not be his, but Brussels. That ploy will simply not work. Nonetheless, he has been trying to use climate change to reduce social benefits.:"
                  https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/w...ears-to-taxes/

                  "If partisanship supersedes democratic principles then this has debased and dishonored our democracy, turning upside-down the core American idea that all governmental power derives from the people. These party dictates have enabled politicians to entrench themselves in office as against voters’ preferences"
                  https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/i...onstitutional/

                  Fragmentation and collapse.
                  https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/a...nal-economies/

                  Comment


                  • Space war,,, no buyers for treasuries,,,,The flip is close

                    Zero Hedge headlines,
                    Banks Celebrate Record High Stocks With Most Layoffs Since 2015
                    "n 2019 - the year when stocks hit record highs around the globe - more than 50 banks have announced plans to cut a combined 77,780 jobs, "
                    What If Monica Actually Had Taken The Stand?
                    "While Mr. Schumer has argued witnesses are essential, he only means Democratic witnesses. The witnesses that Republicans could call - like Hunter Biden - would be a “distraction.”
                    Russian Hypersonic Nuclear Weapon That Can Travel 27 Times The Speed Of Sound Is Now Operational

                    Steve Quayle, "The U.S. And Russia Have Both Been Developing Plans To Deal With Incoming Asteroids"
                    What Do They Know? US And Russia Both Developing Plans To Deal With Incoming Asteroids
                    Right, asteroids. Definitely NOT hypersonic weapons.
                    Trump signs defense bill establishing U.S. Space Force

                    Which Way Is Domestic Manufacturing Really Leaning?
                    https://zh-prod-1cc738ca-7d3b-4a72-b...?itok=4whAb4T6
                    A "Market" Crash Is Baked In... Here's Why
                    "Anyone looking at the hollowed-out, fragile shell of a Fed-managed "market" as a system realizes a crash that runs away from central planning control is already baked in.."

                    Stocks Hit Record Euphoria Amid "Explosive" Increase In Hedge Fund Net Exposure
                    "The persistent buying of long positions in US equities by strategies of all types has led to an "explosive" increase in net exposure among hedge funds overall. ""
                    YEP, go long. The expansion will never stop.
                    Are We About To Return To The Principle That "Actions Have Consequences"?
                    "...a deadly divorce between truth and reality. It will be an invitation to civil violence, a broken social contract, and the end of the framework for American life that was set up in 1788."
                    Hollywood has given us a faux world. The return of reality that comes with the default cascade will drive most people over the edge.

                    One Bank Asks If The Market's "Explosive" Melt Up Will End In A Flash Crash
                    Hmmm, I'll give you 3 guesses.
                    Congress gives America a special Christmas present: higher taxes
                    But, but, it is for the children.
                    Donald Trump Will Easily Be Reelected: There's Been No Repudiation Of What He Represents and There Won't Be
                    "Trump doesn’t need war, because he has brought the war home by making us confront our emptiness directly. He is the catalyst we needed at this time... America is exhausted, which the liberal elites don’t get..."
                    Report Hyped By Climate Alarmists Warned: Millions Dead, Nuclear War, & Sunken Major Cities By 2020
                    You just have to BELIEVE.

                    https://www.zerohedge.com/technology...out-automation
                    "This is a real challenge - you can write off capital, but writing off human beings (often in large numbers or in concentrated locations) is both wrong in itself and very dangerous..."
                    That will soon become obvious.
                    The limits to growth.
                    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitic...-limits-growth
                    Demographic Armageddon: Japan's Births Drop To Lowest Since 1874 As Deaths Hit Highest Since World War II
                    Signs Swirl All Around Us - The Monetary Reset Is At Hand

                    https://www.zerohedge.com/commoditie...ary-reset-hand

                    Maybe this crash isn't an accident
                    Deplorables Versus The Ruling Class: A Global Struggle
                    "The Deplorables are ascending in America, with Trump, in Britain with Brexit, in Hong Kong, in much of Europe, in Latin America, in Iran. Deplorables are the antidote to arrogant globalist socialists..."
                    The deplorables know how to plant a garden and shoot a squirrel.

                    "The shortage has occurred because the largest banks, designated globally systemically important banks (GSIBs) must demonstrate excess reserves to cover obligations thirty days out. The strains for this Basel III requirement are expected to increase at the next quarter-end, i.e. 31 December."
                    "Even before welfare costs rise and tax income falls due to a developing global recession, it appears that government borrowing world-wide is set to accelerate."
                    "We will not have dealt with the underlying problem, which is who is going to buy the $1–1½ trillion of US government debt to be issued in 2020."???
                    "The banking scene is set for a reversion from incautious greed to abject fear, fear of lending to anyone and to any other bank. And the weakest banks are to be found in the Eurozone. "
                    Is that what happens on January 17-18?

                    "At some stage, and it could only be a matter of weeks or even days, the global outlook will cause all GSIB banks to become considerably more cautious, withdrawing lending facilities from smaller banks, financial speculators (hedge funds), and businesses alike. "
                    "In capital markets banks begin to cut their high levels of exposure to sub-investment grade bonds and syndications, and they withdraw working capital facilities for medium and small businesses."
                    "sub-investment grade bonds"
                    2/26 The spread between CCC, BB is ‘canary in coal mine’ – Rosenberg

                    "Ninety years ago, it was called a crack-up boom, the last dash out of currency for anything not printed by the government. It will happen differently this time, because it always does. But now that inflationary financing is not only required to balance governments’ books but to finance the expansion of their spending, happen it will.'
                    https://www.goldmoney.com/research/g...gmrefcode=gata

                    Autocrats are replacing democracy and, trust has EVAPORATED.
                    https://www.news.com.au/national/pol...34804167f946e3
                    "Scott Morrison’s Currency (Restrictions on the Use of Cash) Bill 2019 is a fraudulent assault on the freedoms of Australians.

                    Banning cash transactions over $10,000 will not end the tax evasion and money laundering of the “black economy”, but will strip individuals of their right to privacy in financial affairs, and trap them in private banks, unable to escape policies such as “bail-in” and negative interest rates.

                    It is outrageous that this cash ban is a recommendation of one of the big four global accounting firms, KPMG, which wrote the 2017 Black Economy Taskforce report and is already lobbying for the limit to be reduced to $2,000."
                    Yep, keep everything in the bank so that your cash will be available when the government needs it.

                    Trump's enemies.
                    12/27 China beige book: corporate borrowing soars and cash flows deteriorate – CNBC
                    12/27 Japan’s output, retail sales fall, signalling economic strains – Reuters

                    JUST MAYBE, the people are too poor to spend.
                    News
                    12/27 Corporate defaults in China surge in 2019 to record $18.6 billion – GATA
                    12/27 China’s government is just letting a wave of bond defaults happen – Bloomberg

                    That will work wonders for confidence.
                    12/27 Australia senate discusses cash ban and its impact to cryptocurrencies – Coin Geek
                    Think gold.
                    12/26 Get ready for central bank bail-ins and a bitter taste of economic reality! – Lynette Zang
                    12/27 BOJ Kuroda says ready to ease if 2% inflation comes under threat – Nasdaq

                    There seems to be no limit to the stupidity that comes from Kuroda.

                    Comment


                    • The blob state,,the dole,,, reality check

                      As I already posted, The Parkinson's Law effect means that the blob state will never stop growing,,, willingly. It is a battle between the deplorables and, the blob state.
                      https://www.zerohedge.com/political/...lobal-struggle

                      "That being said, debts need to be paid back or forgiven — there is no other outcome. In addition, the amount of debt that a system can take on is limited, and when a credit-based system can’t grow any further, the logical outcome is the collapse of the whole system."
                      "The individual is thus turned more and more into a state dependent, as the basis for a free life is financial independence and the ability have savings on the side that keep you self-reliant. "
                      https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitic...n-civilization

                      "How successful governments and central banks are in forestalling economic and financial catastrophe is merely a detail. The important point is that the cycle, each successive crisis larger than the previous one, is a feature, not a bug, of fiat credit systems. Eventually they all crash. The Fed has amplified rather than damped economic fluctuations (for a masterful exposition of the destructiveness of US, European, and Japanese central banks the last several decades, see “The Japanization of the European Union,” Jesús Huerta de Soto, SLL, 12/13/19)"

                      "The 1910-1920 decade kicked off the long bull market in government. In the US, we got the Federal Reserve, the income tax, direct election of senators, and Prohibition. The world got World War I and the Treaty of Versailles, the Middle East sliced up into European satrapies, the Bolshevik Revolution, and the Spanish Flu.

                      The next hundred years was a montage of government-sponsored horrors: the Great Depression, World War II, tyrannical dictatorships, mass slaughter, nuclear weaponry, terrorism, environmental degradation, the American military-industrial-intelligence-media-academic complex, and an unprecedented explosion of debt to pay for it all. Yet, after the bloodiest century in human history, in which governments killed an estimated 100 to 200 million people not counting the wars, questioning the legitimacy and necessity of governments is still outside the Overton window."
                      https://straightlinelogic.com/2019/1...y-robert-gore/

                      "You don’t make mistakes when you don’t have money. When you have too much money, you will make a lot of mistakes.”
                      – Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba, the Amazon of China

                      “My view is simple and starts with the observation that gold is a lot like religion. No one can prove that God exists…or that God doesn’t exist…Well, that’s exactly the way I think it is with gold. Either you’re a believer or you’re not.”
                      – Howard Marks, founder of OakMark, whose newsletter Warren Buffett reads “religiously”

                      “Because of Paul Volcker, our financial system is safer and stronger. I’ll remember Paul for his consummate wisdom, untethered honesty, and a level of dignity that matched his towering stature.”
                      – Barack Obama

                      “Every penny of QE undertaken by the Fed that cannot be unwound is monetized debt.”
                      – CNBC regular and former senior advisor to the president of the Dallas Fed, Danielle DiMartino Boot"

                      Keep in mind that Obama was elected at the cost of $1billion. His first 2 appointments were powerful bankers.

                      "It was Mr. Martin’s (FED head) propensity to be a punch-bowl cop that got him into hot water in 1965. He was reluctant to monetarily accommodate Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society and Vietnam war spending sprees. This resistance reportedly caused LBJ to slam his Fed chairman up against a wall at the President’s Texas ranch, bellowing: “Boys are dying in Vietnam and Bill Martin doesn’t care.”
                      https://blog.evergreengavekal.com/ta...-hard-way-out/
                      Yes, the genesis of the welfare-warfare state. So much for FED independence.

                      06:10 PM ET 08/22/2014

                      The Dole: New data on federal public assistance programs show we've reached an ignominious milestone: More than 100 million Americans are getting some form of "means-tested" welfare assistance.

                      The Census Bureau found 51 million on food stamps at the end of 2012 and 83 million on Medicaid, with tens of millions of households getting both. Another 4 million were on unemployment insurance."
                      "Another shocking feature of these statistics is that they don't even include income-transfer programs such as unemployment insurance and disability. These two add another $250 billion to the cost of welfare and are two of the most abused and scandal-ridden dispensers of federal cash.

                      On top of that, the 2012 numbers exclude most of the 3 million Obama has added to the ranks of Medicaid due to ObamaCare"
                      https://www.investors.com/politics/e...re-on-welfare/

                      "About 688,000 people are expected to be affected by new rules for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. The Agriculture Department estimates the change will save the government $5.5 billion over five years. It's scheduled to go into place on Apr. 1, 2020.
                      The new rule affects able-bodied people ages 18 to 49 without dependents.
                      According to a study from the Urban Institute this week, those rules taken together would drop 3.7 million people from the program nationwide. "
                      https://ktvz.com/news/oregon-northwe...ew-work-rules/

                      Where there is money, there is fraud.
                      https://www.breitbart.com/crime/2019...ud-busts-2019/
                      12/29 Trump exposes Pelosi and son’s ties to Ukraine energy group – Zero Hedge

                      Brexit: President of European Commission Says Johnson's Deadline for Trade Talks May Need Extension
                      AND
                      The British prime minister has backed a law which will ban the government from extending its post-Brexit "transition period" beyond December 2020.
                      The eurocrats face crashing socialism and, they don't want Britain to escape their grasp.
                      Creeper Biden's pledge to kill blue collar jobs for clean energy being compared to Clinton's 2016 misstep
                      Give him a gun and, he will always shoot his foot.

                      Comment


                      • Blocked from posting. I cut it in half,,, still no go.

                        Comment


                        • different title

                          Bank of England chief Mark Carney issues climate change warning
                          "Scientists say the risks associated with an increase of 4C include a nine metre rise in sea levels - affecting up to 760 million people – searing heatwaves and droughts, and serious food supply problems."
                          "Climate campaigners Extinction Rebellion question whether the capitalist system can halt climate change."
                          "Climate change was what he called a “tragedy of the horizon”, because the decision-making time horizon of investment managers is between two and 10 years.

                          “In those horizons there will be more extreme weather events, but by the time that the extreme events become so prevalent and so obvious it’s too late to do anything about it," he said."
                          He IS correct.
                          "He told those questioning the consensus on climate change: “We can’t afford on this one to have selective information, spin, misdirection… It needs to be absolutely clear because we are all in on it. "
                          (Goldman Sachs) also announced plans to help its clients manage climate impacts by selling weather-related catastrophe bonds."
                          https://www.bbc.com/news/business-50868717

                          Comment


                          • still working on it

                            " Worryingly, the world is now deeply interconnected and interdependent. In the past, collapse was confined to regions – it was a temporary setback, and people often could easily return to agrarian or hunter-gatherer lifestyles. "
                            "People are increasingly specialised and disconnected from the production of food and basic goods. And a changing climate may irreparably damage our ability to return to simple farming practices."
                            Don't even think about it.
                            "Think of civilisation as a poorly-built ladder. As you climb, each step that you used falls away. A fall from a height of just a few rungs is fine. Yet the higher you climb, the larger the fall. Eventually, once you reach a sufficient height, any drop from the ladder is fatal."
                            I like that metaphor.
                            "Any collapse – any fall from the ladder – risks being permanent. Nuclear war in itself could result in an existential risk: either the extinction of our species, or a permanent catapult back to the Stone Age. "
                            He didn't mention that we are on the cusp of an approaching micro-nova.

                            "For example, the climatic changes we face are of a different nature to what undid the Maya or Anazasi. They are global, human-driven, quicker, and more severe."
                            "We know what needs to be done: emissions can be reduced, inequalities levelled, environmental degradation reversed, innovation unleashed and economies diversified. The policy proposals are there. Only the political will is lacking. "
                            "inequalities levelled, "
                            So, the SJWs are going to make all the stupid people into smart people. OR, are they just planning to get rid of all the smart people. Send them out to work in the rice paddies.

                            Comment


                            • not sure what was objectionable

                              'Worst Market In 30 Years' - 400,000 Commodity Railcars Sit Idle Amid Industrial Recession
                              2020 - The Year Of The Oil Bankruptcies

                              When the ultimate refuge turns risky – Financial Post

                              Yes, GOV bonds are considered risk-free. GOV bonds ALWAYS collapse. But, between collapses, they are risk-free.
                              12/30 Bank of America: trend for 2020s will be the “end of globalization” – Summit
                              12/30 The decade of debt: big deals, bigger risk – Reuters
                              12/29 Cracks are showing on the surface of once “safe” top tier malls – Zero Hedge
                              12/30 Hedge fund closures exceed launches for fifth straight year – Bloomberg
                              12/30 ECB’s Knot says low rate policy risks becoming counterproductive – NY Times
                              12/30 Supposedly “risk free” assets are looking awfully risky – Quartz


                              12/30 UN moves towards handing dictatorships power to control the internet – Summit
                              General Assembly approves $3 billion UN budget for 2020. The UN General Assembly on Friday adopted a budget of $3,073,830,500 for the United Nations to cover the year 2020
                              Yes, the blob state on steroids

                              California’s free community college plan collides with unfunded liabilities
                              "According to a Reason Foundation analysis of 2018 audited financial reports, California community college districts face total non-current liabilities of $36 billion"
                              In their CAFR report, the UC system reports that they have $91 billion stashed away.

                              Italy seems to be in deep trouble
                              https://www.breitbart.com/europe/201...lapse-january/

                              Comment


                              • Communitarianism, the other way to go broke

                                Our current economy is skewed to support the non-producers and penalize the producers.
                                First, to focus on the State.
                                Hegel advocated having the State collect taxes and, spend them on hiring workers. Those workers would then approve of higher taxes. More people could be hired, ensuring a growing tax base. This leads to "communitarianism."
                                https://rense.com/general77/sele.htm
                                https://rense.com/general76/commnu.htm
                                Communitarianism isn't markedly different from socialism. It can be expected to break the bank as socialism has always done.
                                The "Princeton Egg" indicates that we are all in communication to a certain degree at the quantum level. Since State bureaucrats are non-producers, they are always nervous about their jobs. They see a drastic fall in funding on the horizon. The answer, of course, is more taxes. Every one dollar increase in taxes reduces the producing economy by 3$.

                                The State invented the "war on terror" because that gave them an eternal enemy that necessitated limitless funding for the M.I.C.
                                The State invented global warming because that gave them an impossible-to-fight battle that would require an unending rise in taxation. Their record has been terrible but, that doesn't stop them for clamoring for MORE taxes.
                                https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_w8YRRMFOs

                                Hundreds of million blobettes (bureaucrats) require and demand more taxes to support their numbers that rise 6% pre year on average.
                                Here is a list of States and, their public sector employment burden.
                                https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o..._public_sector
                                Hundreds of millions of self-serving bureaucrats worldwide demand higher taxes. Global warming is just the ticket. BUT, not just any global warming. It must be caused by man. We can't very well tax the sun.

                                The joke is on us. Global cooling could bring as much as a 50% population reduction.
                                "Everything seems to be getting quite interesting. Our biggest problem has been the propaganda being spread by Greenpeace’s Jennifer Morgan and Al Gore which has everyone looking at Global Warming and then taking credit for the extreme cold periods claiming, without any evidence, that this is all due to CO2 along with the bush fires in Australia. They seem to be setting the world up to be totally unprepared for the real devastation of Global Cooling and how that historically has not just toppled empires, but has on a few occasions resulted in a 50% decline in population."
                                https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/w...ing-to-us-all/
                                Keep in mind that YOU may be able to go inside to get out of the cold. Your plants just can't do that.
                                "The global land area is 13.2 billion ha. Of this, 12 percent (1.6 billion ha) is currently in use for cultivation of agricultural crops,"
                                Only 20% of this is irrigated. The rest depends on reliable rain. Floods and drought don't work for plants.

                                In Weather Chaos, a Case for Global Warming - The New York
                                CLIMATE CALAMITY World faces weather CHAOS as climate change threatens to shut down Atlantic Ocean’s flow, warn scientists.

                                You get the idea. We have weather chaos so, we must pay more taxes so that the bureaucrats can fix the problem.

                                12/31 “Party like it’s 1998”: A quarter of $3.2 trillion in BBB-rated bonds may be junk – ZH
                                Well shoot, just sell them. $trillions of BBB rated bonds are close to melting down. The fear / greed index has swung all the way to greed and, nobody is leaving the markets.
                                https://moneymaven.io/mishtalk/econo...dUW0N8K395ORuA
                                12/30 Bank of America: trend for 2020s will be the “end of globalization” – Summit
                                WAIT, what about the trade deal?

                                Armstrong, "The Repo Crisis for year-end has had the Fed pumping in a staggering amount of about $234 billion into the repo markets. They are exchanging high-quality capital for cash to suppress market volatility and maintain the central bank’s overnight funds level,"
                                Armstrong can NOT say anything that might start a panic. The banks are exchanging "high quality capital". No, they are cashing out government paper because they have lost confidence in it. The $234 billion number is bogus also.
                                "With inflation low and unemployment back at 1960s levels, there is no reason for quantitative easing to support the economy. Instead, the Fed is trying to maintain control over short-term rates for the free market is pushing higher. This means the actions of the Fed are an attempt to PREVENT the rise in interest rates, not to stimulate the economy."
                                Yeah right, 96 million NOT in the labor force and inflation at close to 10%.

                                Kunstler wraps up the whole situation.
                                https://kunstler.com/cluster****-nat...g-and-swirlin/

                                Comment

                                Working...
                                X