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"Mr. Langone made his fortune by putting every local hardware store in America out of business, which enabled him to capture the annual incomes of ten thousand small business owners and their employees."
Market concentration is threatening the little guy.
Keep in mind that; if all the insects die, mankind dies shortly after.
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Population deflation,,,MMT and bonds
Ageing and Asian markets.
"From Japan and South Korea to China and some parts of Southeast Asia, aging populations are about to fundamentally change societies, business strategies and government policies."
"The ageing threat has been discussed for years, but the latest signs suggest the region's worst fears are beginning to become a reality.
"I want a child," said one South Korean wife in her 30s. "But we still don't have a house, and when we think about the money, we're unable to take the plunge."
The State tries to grow the economy by pumping hot money to the speculators. The speculators drive up the price of housing out of the reach of would-be parents. There is quite a lag between cause & effect but, it is here.
"TOKYO -- The Asian century is going to be gray.
From Japan and South Korea to China and some parts of Southeast Asia, ageing populations are about to fundamentally change societies, business strategies and government policies. Moreover, the trend could tilt the regional and global power balance, as some economies are stunted while others continue to grow on the back of still-plentiful labor.
The ageing threat has been discussed for years, but the latest signs suggest the region's worst fears are beginning to become a reality.
"I want a child," said one South Korean wife in her 30s. "But we still don't have a house, and when we think about the money, we're unable to take the plunge."
Many South Koreans express similar sentiments and refrain from having children. The working-age population, ranging in age from 15 to 64, declined for the first time in 2017. Now, the total population is also projected to go into decline as early as next year, the country's statistics agency warned at the end of March.
A newborn at a hospital in Japan: As births decline, Asia is rapidly getting older. (Photo by Ken Kobayashi)
By 2065, South Korea is forecast to become the grayest developed nation.
In China, the government abolished its one-child policy in 2016, but this appears to be a case of too little, too late. Births continued to decrease in 2017 and 2018.
The number of Chinese aged 16-59 began falling in 2014, according to the United Nations."
Japan plans to lower the interest rate so that Japanese couples will have more children.
Does it seem that there is a BIG disconnect between State perceptions and reality?
Notes;
China "All that has contributed to soaring house and rental prices, which are pushing younger, first-time homebuyers out of the market. In recent decades, housing prices have risen nearly twice as fast as disposable income,"
"Chinese investors are inflating housing markets in the US, Canada, and Australia"
Since the land under the houses is owned by the State, it tries to inflate the price. Everybody with extra money buys up the housing to rent of resell later. High RE prices drive down birth rates. At the same time, investors are demanding these high prices never drop.
"Public anger in China spreading as property prices drop | South China ...
https://www.scmp.com
This is one more thing that markets can not cope with.
CRONY capitalism has used regulatory capture to kill representative democracy.
Armstrong, "The hard landing is economic and will have its greatest impact outside the USA"
"The ECB has been on its hands and knees, pleading with the Fed not to raise rates when they will have to continue their QE programs or face sovereign debt defaults."
Armstrong expects capital inflows to U.S. equities to continue. This drains capital out of Europe. The ECB must continue with QE OR, it must implement MMT. Even that might not save them. China has a $1 trillion capital outflow per year. The outflows cause domestic deflation of the circulating money supply. Somebody has to make up the difference one way or another. Much of the outflows are tied to investor confidence that the GOV will not protect their investment.
Globalization and unlimited capital flows are a direct weapon against socialist tendencies and irresponsible governments,,,, what the bankers consider "irresponsible".
This motivates the State to escape this control. MMT completely sidelines the bond speculators. The bond speculators most definitely don't want to be sidelined. When the pension crisis really hits, there will be demands to escape the control of the bankers.
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SDR,, the little train that couldn't,,, population reduction
Once again, my post got bleeped into oblivion.
The world is at a bifurcation point. Part of the PTB want global population reduction. Part want continual population growth to supply continual growth in credit and finance markets.
Armstrong decries any attempt at population reduction.
A fraction of the PTB are in the process of pushing the U.S. dollar off a cliff to usher in a one-world currency. The new one-world currency would be referenced to the special drawing rights and anchored to the blockchain.
Here is an excellent article that lays out the whole process.
Globalists Are Bringing Their One World Currency Plans Out Into The Open
The article makes NO MENTION of racism. It makes NO MENTION of human nature. Asia is the main source of population. Russia has $ 75 trillion in natural resources. No one-world currency would be viable if it weren't accepted in the East. Will the Chinese subscribe to a currency system created by their historic tormentor and enemy?
Will Russia trade their resources to the West who destroyed Russia by fomenting the Bolshevik revolution? The Chinese are quite racist,, like everyone else. Will they let the West impose a new reserve system on them that shows no particular advantage?
It is obvious that a fraction of the PTB is working on population reduction. Russia gives out free apartments and medals to couples that have lots of children. Why would Russia subscribe to a control system created by the West (SDR)
The working population of China drops by 1 million a year. I doubt that they have any interest in dropping it much faster. They rescinded their one-child policy.
The article posits that the Central Banks would create a crypto-currency referenced to the blockchain. The CBs would replace the private banks. This is obviously an attempt by the State to replace the private banks. I doubt that the idea will fly.
The State is working on absolute control.
"The company behind the creation: Bichip, state that their human implant is the first and only distance readable human microchip with internet connectivity. Originally designed to store medical data, drivers license and passport details, the newest upgrade now allows for the safe storage of cryptocurrency."
This could be the ultimate state of socialism. Every facet of your life could be monitored or deleted. This could be the ultimate state of fascism.
The chip combined with the blockchain could be used to compel you to work regardless.
The chip combined with the block chain has the power to pull your labor-value to either the rich OR the poor.
China is locking down State control with their social credit system. They are in the end-game of a MASSIVE State-sponsored misallocation of resources. China has spent enormous sums on creating a food-production infrastructure in Africa. They don'y need anything from the West. Why would they accept a credit instrument from the West?
The same is true for Russia. They don't need anything from the West.Comment
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OK, this is pretty much standard operating procedure when the banks control the State,
"Let's start with the Ray Dalio Effect, which strikes financiers who've exploited our rigged system to skim billions while creating zero goods and services or public good:"
"Meanwhile, in the real world of people creating wealth with their labor, workers' share of the national income has cratered while the financiers piled up their billions. The greatest expansion of wealth in U.S. history has created the greatest expansion of wealth inequality in U.S. history."
Standard operating procedure.
Very good article, oftwominds-Charles Hugh Smith: Blind Faith vs. the Bottom Line
Well, we HAD to save the banks.
No interest income but, IT WAS WORTH IT.
Is the IMF r eferring to, US budget deficit hits record $234 billion in February, national debt
Inflated prices are deflationary to the consuming economy.
AND ??
If you are a prepper, this is the most likely scenario to prepare for. If you hear about a general strike by police and fire fighters, it is time to load up the car. Bring money and a tent and,,, camp out at a national park.
Pension charts, https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-...sion-nightmareComment
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There is a reason that bankers hate MMT
The assumption is made that; when city and State pension funds go broke, FED GOV will borrow tons of money and, bail them out.
The alternative would be a system-wide default.
I found an interesting Doc that I must excerpt heavily. It is too deceptive to just link to.
"Federal debt accelerations ultimately lead to lower, not higher, interest rates. Debt-funded traditional fiscal stimulus is extremely fleeting when debt levels are already inordinately high. Thus, additional and large deficits provide only transitory gains in economic activity, which are quickly followed by weaker business conditions."
Yet, long term government bond yields dropped sharply in all four
areas. This result contradicts the view that the supply
of government debt determines long-term risk-free yields. In microeconomic models and standard supply/demand analysis, increasing the issuance of debt could push yields higher. "
They keep using that term, "risk free"
"This increased debt level will weaken economic activity, thus inflation, pushing long-term yields lower, thereby continuing the now almost three-decade long trend to lower long-term Treasury yields. The empirical evidence is clear. In the past two decades, the government debt-to-GDP ratio rose by 45%, 119%, 15% and 63% in the U.S., Japan, the euro area and the U.K., respectively, unprecedented amounts for any peace time period. At the same time, government bond yields dropped 285, 235, 380 and 400 basis points, respectively (Charts 1, 2, 3, 4). Despite a current gross debt-to-GDP ratio of 106% and a CBO estimate of 110% in seven years, there are currently strong recommendations for even larger deficits and higher debt-to-GDP ratios."
Since U.S. sovereign debt is "risk free', the higher the demand, the lower the rate that it pays. The CBs world-wide pump in mega-tons of liquidity. OF COURSE it flows to risk-free investments. Since U.S. debt is more "risk free" than European or Chinese debt, US debt attracts foreign capoital inflows.
"The empirical evidence is clear. In the past two decades, the government debt-to-GDP ratio rose by 45%, 119%, 15% and 63% in the U.S., Japan, the euro area and the U.K., respectively, unprecedented amounts for any peace time period. At the same time, government bond yields dropped 285, 235, 380 and 400 basis points, respectively"
"The Brookings Paper. The Brookings study starts with the point that stimulative monetary policy options are now inefficacious. RS write that the Fed could take steps to boost private indebtedness, but this might lead to a crisis."
Sure give more lair-loans and, wait for more defaults.
"With monetary policy sidelined, RS contend that fiscal policy must do much more to contain chronically weak demand,"
Wages no longer support demand because of banker-engineered price inflation.
"Three considerations suggest the RS thesis will not work as advertised. (1) Many historical case studies, including findings from Japan and the U.S., do not support the RS thesis. (2) There exists an insufficiency of national saving (private and government combined) to fund greater deficits without sharply reducing investment in plant and equipment and/or consumer spending."
Now, we're getting somewhere. Not enough money in the system.
"This further explains the empirical truth that large government debt and indebtedness leads to lower, not higher, interest rates. Borrowing is indeed much greater, but large indebtedness eventually slows economic growth as resources are transferred from the highly productive private sector to the government sector."
NO mention of all the liquidity locked up by the banks
"Declining marginal productivity of debt. When a factor of production is overused, real GDP follows the law of diminishing returns. With debt accelerating even faster under the RS thesis, the marginal productivity of debt should contract further, creating the same pattern evident in the U.S., the U.K., Japan and China. Diminishing returns is a non-linear concept, which means more is not more, it is less. In 2017 and 2018, the GDP generating capacity of debt for all reporting countries was 17.4% lower than 10 years ago."
NO MENTION that falling productivity is caused by the fact that productivity is useless without consumption demand.The money all went into inflationary speculation, NOT into wages or consumption.MMT rears it's ugly head.The LIE rears it's ugly head. Interest rates have noting to do with money created out of thin air. Also, this proposes that the FED create this (debt-loaded) liquidity and NOT the Treasury. Do you see any reason for the FED to be in the loop?
"Thus, the Fed, which is part of the government, would be funding its parent with a worthless IOU."
I OWE NOBODY.
"There would be no real increase in services or money"
True, but, there would be a difference on where the money went.
"If the government responded by issuing more central bank legal tender, the inflationary process would become self-perpetuating, and as was the case in numerous historical instances this would lead to hyper-inflation."
Consumption and demand have flat-lined because of banker-created price inflation. Injecting debt-free money into the lower loop would bring back consumption and therefore, production. BUT, it would diminish demand for credit.
Now, we come to the big lie.
"Moreover, the central bank would have no capability of reducing the money supply. All they could offer would be the zero maturity, zero interest liabilities of the government, but there would be no buyers."
So, exactly what is a zero-interest liability?
True, there would be no buyers. There would be NO NEED for intermediaries. The money bypasses the banks.
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Russia is the largest supplier of energy in the world. That means that she receives a huge amount of fiat currency in payment for this energy. She is dumping fiat currency in favor of gold.
Both Russia and China are buying LOTS of gold. Do you see any reason for them to sign on to the SDR?
Obviously, this has nothing to do with falling population.
BRING IT ON ! We're tired of being screwed by bankers.
Psychology is too important to be overlooked like it is.
Hopefully, they didn't take these brain genes for lawyers or politicians.
Most production is done by automatic machines.
The blob State is sucking the producer dry.
The banks are sucking the producer dry.
There is no robot tax. The money has all flowed to the upper loop.
Sorry, won't do.Comment
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Keep in mind that this comes from The Sun. This vid has an observation of the different people who read the different papers in Britain.
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About GDP
Mnuchin 'Not Worried at All' About AI Displacing Workers - The Atlantic
Tech community "dumbfounded" by Mnuchin's dismissal of AI impact ..
"the unemployment rate is down to just 3.8%, the entire post-crisis gap between actual real GDP and the CBO estimate of potential real GDP has been eliminated,"
Hussman Funds
Paper from Harvard, "Our exploration suggests that while GDP, as currently defined, is not a comprehensive measure of welfare or even economic well-being,"
"Though Kuznets is credited with generating the first national income accounts, they did not reflect a method he desired to use. Kuznets wanted to create a measure that could be used to understand welfare, not simply output. He thought advertising, financial industries, speculative activities, subways, and certain types of expensive urban housing, among other things, including government spending ought not be included (p. 14). "
GDP during the war years;
Dec 31, 1944 7.95%
Dec 31, 1943 17.02%
Dec 31, 1942 18.88%
Dec 31, 1941 17.71%
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The woes of Japan spreading to the R.O.W.
Here is a graph of U.S. debt.
Here is a graph of the % of the GDP that is attributed to finance.
No mention that population growth was stuck at zero.[B]So, the FED has a choice. It can hold this $10 trillion in GOV debt and, collect the interest OR, GOV can print money to pay it's bills and, bypass the FED and the bankers. [/B https://www.mauldineconomics.com/fro...ed-world-ahead
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Zombies and job niches
I've always maintained that there is NO cure for efficiency and NO way to roll back automation. From a tangential view, this becomes obvious.
FED GOV spent $243 billion in February 2019. Where did it go. What did they spend it on?
Boeing Didn't Get Any Commercial 737 Orders in March - WSJ
Lockheed Martin, Boeing get most money from federal government
OK, so, why did GOV spend it?
" a zombie company is a technical term for a business which, if it is not yet numbered among the undead, is only earning just enough cash to pay the interest on its borrowings. " But the bursting of the Japanese asset bubble changed everything. Larger companies were kept afloat by government supported banks to keep their people in work,"
"Around the world, the number of zombie companies has risen since the Financial Crisis of 2008. The Bank of International Settlements (BIS) has estimated that 10% of all US public companies can be defined as zombies."
"you might ask if zombie companies were good or even necessary for the wider economy. Employees of zombie companies would argue that they are still employed, still paying taxes and still spending in the shops."
Also, zombies are low productivity companies. With no cash to invest and hoarding skilled labour"
13% of the world's companies are 'zombies.' That's not healthy - CNN
Mar 14, 2018 - China's Zombie Firms Can't Lurch Forever .... with the motivation to keep companies alive, their workers employedpayrollslowed down the wholesale destruction of job niches and maintained spending of the middle class. A wholesale default of impoverished middle class people would wipe out a lot of banks. "They" are trying to stave off defaults by propping up zombie companies who have employees. What about people who don't have jobs?
Twenty-two percent of student loan borrowers fall into default
Student Loan Debt Statistics In 2018: A $1.5 Trillion Crisis - Forbes
Trump is using the last vestiges of our Bretton Woods credit card to bludgeon the Chinese economy. By lowering the global mean wage, China has exported unemployment AND imported a default cycle.
The whole world is trying to maintain employment in the face of rising automation. Mass default and mass unemployment awaits the loser.Comment
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run the presses at hyper speed to avoid deflation
The CBs print trillions to keep people working. GOV never pays off sovereign debt so, the only cost is the interest burden. With hundreds of trillions of new liquidity sloshing around in markets worldwide, there is too much supply and, too little demand. This has driven interest rates to an effective zero of below. Gov must lie about price inflation or investors would realize that their bond investments are losing far more purchasing power than they are led to believe. ZIRP means that the State can afford to keep the zombies financed for a long time.
Various States are printing and, hopefully looking for price inflation. They are deathly afraid of deflation in any of it's guises.
Fight off deflation at any cost.
Deflation is closing in from all sides.
"Fed should fire up stimulus"
I guess that most people are fooled. The GDP figures are just a measure of all the money sloshing around in the upper
In it's original charter, the FED was forbidden from buying public debt. Over the decades, this prohibition has given way to a mandate. The FED MUST buy sovereign debt. They tried to sell off some of this last year. They sold off about 10% and then, the market puked. Balance sheet reduction acted the same as an interest rate hike. NO CAN DO.
It is projected that the FED balance sheet will grow to $10 trillion.
The ECB is even more trapped. The lack of a common debt market means that a few States will always be shunned by investors. The BOJ is buying up all public debt and, doesn't need investor money.
Obviously, there is a lot of temptation from the FED and ECB to emulate the BOJ. This is even greater at the PBOC. China may very well have to put the credit tiger in a cage.
Zero Hedge, Even the President is Terrified of the Dreaded "D" Word
It is claimed that MMT would create inflation. Here is what trump has to say.
During wars, the GDP goes way up. This proves that the economy is NOT constrained by productivity. It is constrained by consumption. That is why various leaders push their countries into war to escape economic doldrums. The inflation policies of the bankers have now killed consumption.
BUT, as we move away from kinetic wars and into cyber wars, there is far less opportunity to run up big bills and kill lots of people. Even the kinetic wars are showing that cheap missiles are far superior to expensive navies. There is a big push to go big on space war. This is a non-starter because NOTHING can be protected.Comment
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If the economy gets overheated by inflation, the State collects taxes to cool it down. Other than this, taxes are NOT needed
"For example, if a major war were to break out tomorrow, governments would immediately run very large budget deficits without worrying about how to finance them via taxation first. History shows this to be the case. So the issue is then political: what constitutes an emergency that society should focus its resources on?"
So, if a war breaks out, this constitutes and emergency that demands lots of money. If the working class crashes, well, that's just bad luck.
"conversely, public austerity means the private sector must borrow. "
Why do you think that banks love austerity so much?Yep, only the CB should be able to conjure up money
" contrast, MMT is based on chartalists such as Knapp (1925), Lerner (1943), who argue money is always a political construct. Polanyi (1944) and Graeber (2011) also demonstrate the actual historical record of money is chartalist: there was never a transition barter > gold > credit; with the exception of the gold standard (18151931) the norm across human societies has been to start with local credit, rarely repaid, in order to keep the economy moving. That is a tradition which MMT builds on.
That is also a red pill/blue pill moment for many!"
The transition to electronic money and debt creation has been extremely beneficial to banks. but, it greatly distorts all of the original rules about moneyBonds demand repayment of principle and interest. MMT does NOTTHAT idea went away years ago when banks just created credit from your signature.ah, but that liability is the bankers salary.You don't even NEED the CB. The treasury takes over.
" While a dual inflation and fullemployment mandate already exists at key central banks such as the Fed, and inflation-targeting might still be built into a new MMT policy framework,"
Inflation targeting is ONLY needed to produce new money to pay off loans that are interest+principle that is greater than the money in circulation. Circulate more money.
"Fourth, and a crucial corollary, interest rates become largely irrelevant under MMT. The cost of money would not matter as much as the quantity of money (i.e., the supply of funds into the real economy fiscally). Indeed, MMT suggests that interest rates should be set to zero. "
NOOOOOOO, bankers salaries would be set to zero.
"Yet a fifth issue then emerges: how would the government yield curve respond under MMT? The curve would start very low and flat. However, what if MMT succeeds in achieving inflation? Bond yields would rise "
There would be no bond and no debt service cost.
I don't need to cite any more. The answer is simple. Do we continue with money origination being fed into the banks and upper loop OR, does money origination go straight from the Treasury to the wage earner?Comment
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China has no plan to save itself,,,Japan everywhere
Armstrong, "China has added a new fiscal stimulus package in order to prevent a sharp slowdown. Local governments will be allowed to issue up to 320 billion USD in special purpose bonds to fund infrastructure projects, which is an increase of over 59% from last year."
China Plans To Build An Astonishing 200 New Airports In The Next 15 years
China's Expensive New Airports Lack One Thing: Passengers - WSJ
Welcome to The World's Largest Ghost City: Ordos, China - Gizmodo
There may be as many as 64 million empty apartments in China;
Meanwhile, the Pentagon has made confetti out of the paper trail for their spending.
"When the U.S. recession began during the global financial crisis of 2008, Bernanke promised that he would not make the same mistakes the Japanese made in the 1990s. Instead, he made every mistake the Japanese made, and the U.S. is stuck in the same place and will remain there until the Fed wakes up to its problems.
Bernanke thought that low interest rates and massive money printing would lead to lending and spending that would restore trend growth to 3.2% or higher."
We Have Seen This Happen Before The Last 3 Recessions - And Now It Is The Worst It Has Ever Been
It's not like he has any choice.
"We get taxed on how much we earn, taxed on what we eat, taxed on what we buy, taxed on where we go, taxed on what we drive, and taxed on how much is left of our assets when we die, and yet we have no real say in how the government runs, or how our taxpayer funds are used.
Case in point: Lawmakers across the country have been acting as fronts for corporations, sponsoring more than 10,000 model laws written by corporations, industry groups and think tanks such as the American Legislative Exchange Council.
Make no mistake: this is fascism disguised as legislative expediency."
For all practical purposes, much of the world is run by organized crime. "They" just buy whatever laws they need to fleece us.
Insider trading is a serious crime and many people have been prosecuted for it. The U.S. congress voted to allow insider trading for congress people. This was a bit too blatant so, it was rescinded after a few years.
Honest government, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1efOs0BsE0gComment
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Damn the torpedoes, fund the military
Here is a look at the budget; https://zh-prod-1cc738ca-7d3b-4a72-b...?itok=c0-5mjo4
It's not just the White House: At Pentagon and State Dept., the press is ...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/...pe...1fd-b7b05d5bedBank of America makes case for oil prices above $100 per barrel
So, Pox Americana lays sanctions on oil producing nations like Venezuela, Iran and Russia. This drives up the price of oil. The price of oil goes up and, bankers make more profit. This extra profit is rolled into instruments. None of it goes to wages. Very little goes to capital improvements. So, while a high price for oil is inflationary for the bankers, it is deflationary for the lower loop.
Here is a graph of world trade, https://zh-prod-1cc738ca-7d3b-4a72-b...ade%20data.png
China is printing money to make up for lost trade. Look at the angle of the decline and you will see why China increased stimulus by 59% yoy. Trump is playing them like a yo-yo,,,,, just waiting for the string to break.
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